A high-level delegation of European Union (EU) ministers recently held a meeting in Toulouse, France to formulate a future space policy. The EU made a momentous decision to build an autonomous satellite constellation infrastructure to get high-speed internet access.

A satellite constellation, also called a satellite swarm, is a group of satellites working together as a system. As compared to a single satellite, a constellation offers more reliable and permanent global communication coverage. One of the largest satellite constellation systems is built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It is popularly named as ‘Starlink’. The EU is aiming to build a satellite constellation at par with ‘Starlink’ with complete control to tackle the matter of ‘sovereignty’. 

French President Emmanuel Macron, who was one of the keynote speakers at this high-level meeting, stressed the importance of an independent satellite constellation system in today’s time. He said constellation is the future that will play an important role in the roll-out of advanced telecom services, autonomous driving, emergency services, and maritime support. 

“Who can imagine that, because we don’t have our own European constellation, we would decide de facto to hand over our health or traffic data to other powers, to actors that can’t be governed by European law,” Macron said. 

Currently, undersea fiber optic cables are used heavily for routing internet traffic but experts believe that constellations will play a much larger role in coming times.