Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) announced on Wednesday that it will provide multiple H3 rocket launches for French satellite company Eutelsat Group starting in 2027.
The deal is a major victory abroad for Japan’s ¥220 billion ($1.55 billion) state-run H3 project, which completed its first successful flight in February after a failure last year.
Eutelsat, the world’s third-largest satellite operator by revenue, would become H3’s second foreign customer after Britain’s Inmarsat, MHI said.
An MHI spokesperson declined to comment on the detailed terms, including the costs and types of orbits Eutelsat would use with H3 to launch its satellites.
MHI has previously said it aims to reduce the cost per launch of the H3 to ¥5 billion and increase the number of annual rocket launches to 10.
For MHI and the Japanese government, the H3 is a flagship rocket for Japanese satellites and reconnaissance missions. Moreover, it is a cost-competitive product, given the increasing global demand for rockets following the entry of commercial launch companies such as SpaceX.
Eutelsat, following its merger with OneWeb last year, competes with Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s Starlink division in the field of low-Earth orbit communications satellites.
Several new rockets have been launched this year. Vulcan, developed by the Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance, flew successfully in January. Ariane 6, built by Airbus and Safran’s ArianeGroup for the European Space Agency, debuted in July.
Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin expects to launch New Glenn, a spacecraft being developed for Amazon’s Kuiper satellite internet division, later this year.
