Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has landed a significant contract to provide multiple H3 rocket launches for French satellite operator Eutelsat Group starting in 2027.
This agreement marks a major international win for Japan’s H3 rocket program, a $1.55 billion state-backed project that successfully completed its first flight earlier this year after a prior failure, Reuters news report said.
Eutelsat, one of the world’s largest satellite operators, becomes the second foreign client for the H3 rocket, following a previous deal with Britain’s Inmarsat. Eutelsat Group operates global fleets of 36 GEO and 634 LEO satellites. Eutelsat Group’s revenue was €1.2 billion in fiscal 2024.
While MHI did not disclose specific terms, the company has earlier expressed its aim to cut per-launch costs to 5 billion yen ($33 million) and boost its annual launches to ten. The H3 rocket is critical for Japan’s space exploration efforts and is positioned as a cost-effective solution amid growing global demand for commercial rocket launches, driven by companies like SpaceX.
The deal highlights Eutelsat’s growing presence in the low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications sector, where it competes with Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink. Eutelsat merged with OneWeb last year to strengthen its position in the industry.
This year has seen a surge in new rocket developments globally, including the Vulcan rocket from Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s United Launch Alliance, and the Ariane 6, built by Airbus and Safran’s ArianeGroup for the European Space Agency. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin also plans to launch its New Glenn rocket for Amazon’s Kuiper satellite internet project by the end of the year, Reuters news report said.
