Airbus to Sell US Space Business, Advance Three-Way Satellite Merger
Airbus is exploring the sale of its US space business, which includes a Florida plant and its Arrow small-satellite line, while advancing a three-way European satellite manufacturing merger with Leonardo and Thales. The US unit generates annual sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars and employs over 200 people. Airbus fully acquired the AOS joint venture in 2024, and the broader space division took a 989 million euro impairment charge that year.
Airbus is exploring the sale of its US space business while pursuing a three-way merger to create a pan-European satellite manufacturing champion. The company is evaluating acquisition interest from potential buyers for its US space operations, which include a Florida facility and the Arrow line of small satellites. The Arrow satellites are designed for scalable mass production, serving commercial and government communications, Earth-imaging, and national security-related needs.
In 2024, Airbus acquired the remaining 50% stake in the joint venture Airbus OneWeb Satellites (AOS), gaining full control. The venture, established in 2016, built more than 600 satellites for OneWeb's first-generation constellation, a low-Earth-orbit network providing space-based internet services. For some time, Airbus has been relocating satellite production from the US back to Europe, including manufacturing 440 low-orbit satellites at its Toulouse plant. That order came from France's Eutelsat, which acquired the bankrupt British OneWeb in 2022.
Airbus did not disclose revenue figures for its US space business, but the unit generates annual sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The business employs more than 200 people at its Merritt Island, Florida, facility, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center. Airbus's global space division employs approximately 11,000 people. In 2024, the division recorded an impairment charge of 989 million euros.
In October 2025, Airbus reached an agreement with Italy's Leonardo and France's Thales to integrate satellite manufacturing, space systems, and related services. The three-way project, codenamed "Bromo," is expected to be submitted to Brussels antitrust regulators in late 2026, with the new entity targeting operational launch in 2027. Airbus has long reviewed its US space footprint, and this divestiture plan is unrelated to remedies being negotiated for antitrust approval of the Bromo project.
The three-way merger has drawn criticism from other European companies, including Germany's OHB and Spain's Indra Espacio. The European Union is placing increasing emphasis on European sovereignty in space, with member states seeking to build reconnaissance, intelligence, and communications satellite constellations to reduce dependence on the US. Airbus declined to comment on market rumors and speculation.