SES has successfully launched the final three satellites in its O3b mPOWER constellation, completing the company’s second-generation medium Earth orbit system and expanding its capacity to provide high-performance connectivity to governments, enterprises, telecommunications providers and mobility customers around the world.
The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth O3b mPOWER satellites launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The launch took place at 2:49 p.m. local time on September 13.
The three satellites will join 10 O3b mPOWER spacecraft already operating in medium Earth orbit.
Once the newest satellites become operational, which SES expects by mid-2027, the completed constellation will provide additional capacity, resiliency and geographic reach across the company’s MEO network.
SES developed O3b mPOWER as a high-performance satellite communications platform capable of delivering flexible connectivity to locations where terrestrial networks may be unavailable, constrained or difficult to deploy.
The system can provide connectivity ranging from tens of megabits per second to multiple gigabits per second at individual sites.
Medium Earth orbit systems operate significantly closer to Earth than traditional geostationary satellites.
That positioning can reduce latency while still providing broad geographic coverage, making MEO connectivity particularly useful for applications requiring substantial bandwidth and more responsive communications.
SES is targeting a wide range of customers with O3b mPOWER.
The company expects the newly launched satellites to increase capacity for enterprise customers, government agencies, telecommunications providers and mobility applications operating in remote, underserved or operationally demanding environments.
Those use cases can include ships, aircraft, government installations, cloud connectivity, remote industrial operations and telecommunications networks in areas where fiber and other terrestrial infrastructure are limited.
The additional satellites are also intended to strengthen resiliency across the O3b mPOWER network.
More satellites give SES greater flexibility in how capacity is distributed and can help the company maintain connectivity as customer demand shifts geographically.
SES views that flexibility as increasingly important as customers seek communications platforms that can support cloud applications, data-intensive workloads and critical government operations.
The constellation’s completion also represents a milestone in SES’s broader multi-orbit strategy.
Rather than relying on a single satellite architecture, SES is building communications offerings that combine capabilities across different orbital environments and technologies.
The company believes this can provide customers with more resilient connectivity because services can be designed around multiple networks rather than depending entirely on one infrastructure layer.
SES is also using O3b mPOWER as a foundation for its next-generation MEO strategy.
The company expects future MEO capabilities to support areas including sovereign communications, secure connectivity, space data relay and hosted payloads.
Sovereign connectivity has become an increasingly important area for governments seeking communications infrastructure that provides greater control over security, data handling and network availability.
Space-based networks can play an important role in those strategies because they provide connectivity independent of many terrestrial infrastructure limitations.
Hosted payloads could also allow governments or commercial customers to place specialized equipment aboard future satellite platforms without independently developing and launching an entire spacecraft.
The completion of the 13-satellite constellation gives SES additional infrastructure from which to pursue those opportunities.
The O3b mPOWER system also strengthens SES’s competitive position as demand for satellite connectivity expands across maritime, aviation, government, telecom and enterprise markets.
Cloud providers and corporations increasingly need connectivity in locations beyond traditional data centers and metropolitan networks.
At the same time, government and defense organizations are placing greater emphasis on redundant communications infrastructure capable of operating during disruptions.
SES believes MEO can fill an important position between terrestrial networks and other satellite architectures by combining broad coverage with high capacity and lower latency than traditional geostationary systems.
The final three satellites therefore represent more than an expansion of satellite count.
Their launch completes the initial architecture of a network that SES plans to use as a core element of its global connectivity platform for years ahead.
KEY QUOTES:
“This launch marks a defining milestone for SES as we complete the O3b mPOWER constellation and further strengthen our MEO capabilities. More importantly, it reinforces our ability to deliver resilient, secure and scalable connectivity for customers around the world, helping governments, enterprises, cloud providers and mobility customers meet their most critical needs. As customer demands continue to evolve, SES is focused on building smarter, more integrated solutions that bring together the strengths of multiple technologies and orbits to deliver seamless connectivity worldwide.”
Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES
