In January 2026 the European Union’s GOVSATCOM Hub began initial operations. It offers every Member State governmental satellite capacity pooled by five of them: France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain. Two months later Cyprus made the first operational use of the service, drawing on Greek governmental capacity for safety and security purposes along the Union’s south-eastern borders. The Hub brokers capacity that others own. The Union’s own system, IRIS², exists in law and in contract but not yet in orbit, and its first launches are now planned for 2029. National programmes fill the interval unevenly. Spain’s second new military communications satellite was struck on its way to orbit and can no longer fulfil its mission. France is combining its Syracuse IV military satellites with a commercial low-Earth-orbit constellation and is buying a new generation of multi-orbit terminals. Europe’s question is therefore no longer whether it has satellites. The chain that carries its governmental and military traffic runs through rules, ownership, spectrum, ground control, capacity, terminals and launch. The question is how much of that chain European authorities can actually direct, and where it still depends on decisions taken by companies, by individual states or outside Europe.