By Tim Hepher, Mathieu Rosemain and Elvira Pollina

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) -Driven to the brink by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Europe’s biggest satellite firms are setting aside longtime rivalries in a do-or-die $7 billion merger that some insiders are already calling Project FOMO.

A riff on Project Bromo, the code name for talks that led to Thursday’s deal between Airbus, Thales and Leonardo, their fear of missing out reflects a market dominated by SpaceX and its Starlink array as well as new mega-constellations in China.

“This kind of merger of the three biggest European space companies would have been unthinkable 10 years ago, but competition between Airbus and Thales is much less significant than competition between Europe, U.S. and China,” said Caleb Henry, research director at advisory fir

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