Société Européenne des Satellites
SES S.A. is a Luxembourgish communications satellite operator and a global leader in content and connectivity solutions, owning and operating over 70 satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). They deliver video and data connectivity worldwide to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators, governments, and institutions. SES's major projects include operating the European Astra TV satellites and the O3b mPOWER data satellites, and they have partnerships with organizations like the European Space Agency (ESA) and the US Army. Associated keywords: satellite communications, GEO, MEO, connectivity, Luxembourg.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
SES operates 20 first-generation O3b satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO).
On 16 December 2022 in Luxembourg SES signed an agreement with Vodafone Cook Islands to provide O3b mPOWER services.
SpaceX is slated to launch another pair of O3b mPower satellites later in 2023 and then three O3b mPower satellites on a single Falcon 9 mission in 2024.
SpaceX launched the first O3b mPower satellites for SES’ next-generation broadband constellation on 2022-12-16 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
The Boeing-built O3b mPower satellites use onboard all-electric propulsion and will take about five months to reach their orbital positions.
The first two O3b mPOWER satellites launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on 2022-12-16 at 5:48 PM ET.
O3b mPOWER is designed to provide terabit-level scale and roundtrip latency of less than 150 milliseconds.
SpaceX plans to launch two more pairs of O3b mPower satellites early next year to enable SES to start initial O3b mPower services globally by the third quarter of 2023.
Vodafone Cook Islands was the first customer in the region to use SES’s current-generation O3b medium earth orbit satellite system in 2014 to deliver 0.003 kg and 0.004 kg services to the Cook Islands.
The O3b mPOWER satellites launched on 2022-12-16 were deployed via a dual-configuration Falcon 9 launch.
SES is delivering almost six gigabits per second with telecom partner Claro in Brazil via its O3b network.
SES’s MEO O3b satellites offer lower latency services than the company’s satellites in geostationary orbit.
Each O3b mPower satellite is based on a modified version of Boeing’s 702 platform and is designed to generate up to around 5,000 electronically steered spot beams.
SES expects about 50% of O3b mPower’s capacity to serve government customers, including the U.S. national security market.
Each O3b mPower satellite is designed to provide up to 10 gigabits of throughput.
A Falcon 9 launched at 5:48 p.m. Eastern carrying two of 11 planned O3b mPower satellites and deployed them in separate sequences about two hours after liftoff.
SES states that O3b mPOWER offers more than 100 times the throughput of geostationary (GEO) satellite solutions.
The O3b mPOWER satellites will operate at approximately 8,0 m above the Earth’s surface.
The initial O3b mPOWER ecosystem comprises 11 satellites, each equipped with more than 5,000 digitally formed beams.
SpaceX prioritized the O3b mPOWER launch and delayed a planned Starlink launch from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A by one day.