Minister of Defence Yuriko Backes has clarified that Luxembourg’s GovSat satellite was not used during US military operations against Iran. While the US government has purchased access rights to the GovSat-1 satellite, Backes stated that it is currently not in use in West Asia.
The minister was responding to a parliamentary question from Marc Baum, an MP of the Left Party (Déi Lénk). Backes confirmed that although the US military does make use of GovSat-1’s capabilities, the satellite was not employed in interventions related to the war against Iran. According to Backes, the satellite’s capacity is leased to the European branch of the US military (EUCOM) but was not operationally deployed for Operation "Epic Fury", as GovSat does not cover that region.
Backes added that real-time monitoring or supervision of the satellite’s operations is not feasible.
In summer 2025, the NAOS surveillance satellite was successfully launched from California aboard a SpaceX vessel and was expected to become operational this year. However, Backes noted that the LUXEOSyst programme has experienced a slight delay and is not yet operational – in part because the Earth observation camera still requires calibration, which the minister described as a standard procedure.
Once fully operational, the satellite observation system is expected to be available for use in NATO missions as well as for responding to natural disasters.
The NAOS programme, initially budgeted at €170 million, ultimately cost the Luxembourg state twice that amount. Meanwhile, GovSat2 remains in the conceptual phase and is projected to cost approximately €500 million.
