Today, the market is dominated by SpaceX with its Starlink network, which will have some 9,500 operational satellites and over 9 million subscribers in more than 150 countries by early 2026. Its competitive advantage derives from a highly integrated industrial model that has drastically reduced the cost of access to space.
This is a substantial difference from, for example, one of its main competitors, the Kuiper project of Amazon. The latter, in fact, despite having reached the number of over 200 satellites in orbit and aiming to have over 3,200 units by 2029, appears to be lagging behind also in light of the fact that it does not have a proprietary launch system and therefore has to resort to external launchers with significantly higher costs, estimated between 5.5 and 6 million dollars per satellite.
Faced with this strong market concentration in the hands of US operators, Europe has become aware of the risk of technological dependence in satellite communication infrastructures. Brussels now considers space a critical infrastructure for European strategic autonomy. The response is moving in two directions: the strengthening of the Eutelsat-OneWeb constellation, today with over 600 satellites, and the IRIS² project, the future European infrastructure for secure satellite communications.
Within this global scenario, Italia occupies a more prominent position than is often apparent in the public debate. Our country is among the main European players in the sector and is the third largest contributor to the European Space Agency, with around 15% of the ESA budget. The Italian space industry today counts more than 200 companies and around 7,000 employees, with a total turnover of more than 2 billion euros, testifying to a consolidated technological supply chain.
In recent years, the national ecosystem has been further strengthened, also thanks to the resources of the PNRR, with 7.3 billion euro investment by 2026 to support a supply chain made up of approximately 80% highly specialised small and medium-sized enterprises, alongside large industrial players such as Leonardo.