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Starlink terminals reached Ukraine two days into Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, whereas the EU’s sovereign alternative, IRIS², was only conceived in response to the invasion and is now scheduled for first launches in 2029. The gap is best explained by differences in decision-making structure and capital formation rather than by political alignment. Starlink operates inside SpaceX, a vertically integrated company that owns its launch capability. This avoids the $80-120 million per launch that competitors relying on third-party rockets pay. It is also a profitable segment, with $4.4 billion of operating income in 2025 at a 39% margin, so growth is largely self-financed and decided within a single firm. IRIS² instead depends on a public-private concession, funded by EU budget resources for 2028-2034 plus additional investments from member states and other countries, so each expansion of scope needs agreement across multiple institutions and governments