Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 24, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleA European satellite project involving Leonardo, Thales, and Airbus is making progress to compete with Starlink, supported by France and Italy.
PARIS (Reuters) -Efforts to set up a European space project alliance involving Italy's Leonardo, France's Thales and Airbus and aimed at challenging Elon Musk's Starlink are making progress, said France's industry minister on Thursday.
"It's a project which we support. Talks are moving forward in a constructive manner," said France's Marc Ferracci during a meeting in Paris with his Italian counterpart Adolfo Urso.
Urso said negotiations were aiming at giving the two countries an equal footing in the project, endorsed by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Paris Airshow in June.
Under the so-called "Project Bromo", named after an Indonesian volcano, Leonardo, Thales and Airbus have been exploring plans to set up a new satellite manufacturing company to better compete with the U.S. and China, but so far progress has been modest.
Leonardo's Chief Executive Roberto Cingolani said last month that the three companies would make another assessment on where the deal stands by the end of July.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Alvise Armellini, editing by Giulia Segreti)
The project aims to establish a European space project alliance to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink.
The main companies involved are Italy's Leonardo, France's Thales, and Airbus.
The project is referred to as 'Project Bromo', named after an Indonesian volcano.
The talks are progressing constructively, with both countries seeking equal footing in the project.
The companies plan to make another assessment of the deal's status by the end of July.
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