SES orders 7 O3b ‘mPower’ satellites
September 11, 2017
By Chris Forrester
Satellite operator SES used the Euroconsult Satellite Business Week event to announce a major contract with Boeing to build seven “super-powered” craft as additional satellites for its O3b fleet.
According to SES these new satellites represent a “the beginning of a new era in global cloud-scale connectivity”. SES says the order represents a “rapidly expandable and highly scalable O3b mPOWER system will leverage innovative space and ground technologies, and enable SES Networks to deliver fully-managed services in the dynamic mobility, fixed data and government markets. O3b mPOWER is capable of delivering multiple terabits of throughput globally and is scheduled for launch starting in 2021.”
The new satellites will be medium earth orbit (MEO) craft, and the constellation will have 30,000 fully-shapeable and steerable beams that can be shifted and switched in real time to align with customers’ quickly changing growth opportunities, “making it the most bandwidth-efficient system ever”.
The SES MEO fleet of O3b craft already comprises 12 satellites with another eight planned for launch through 2018 and 2019.
Karim Michael Sabbagh, President and CEO of SES, said, “With the launch of O3b mPOWER, SES is opening a new era of connectivity, fundamentally transforming the role and capabilities of satellite. O3b mPOWER is a unique system with exponentially more power, performance and flexibility which sets the technology at the highest level, offering a visionary roadmap for next generation technology. We are leveraging the pole position we hold today by relying and building on the strengths of our existing O3b Medium Earth Orbit constellation. We are taking a long-term strategic commitment to further boost our capabilities, going beyond boundaries and redefining the frontiers of what satellite connectivity can accomplish. O3b mPOWER will be instrumental in empowering customers to massively scale up their businesses and capture new growth. This will enable us to further execute on our differentiated service offering and deliver profitable growth in line with SES’s financial framework.”