SES adds two more MEO satellites to O3b mPOWER constellation

Details: John Tanner; Category: Satellite Networks; 23 July 2025; 8663 views

Satellite operator SES announced on Tuesday it has launched its latest pair of O3b mPOWER satellites, bringing its next-gen constellation to ten MEO satellites providing global coverage.

The ninth and tenth mPOWER satellites were launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday.

SES said the two new satellites will enhance global coverage of its mPOWER broadband service and bring incremental capacity to scale up services, with connectivity options ranging from tens of Mbps to multiple gigabits per second of capacity to any site.

The remaining three O3b mPOWER satellites are currently being manufactured and are scheduled for launch in 2026. SES said those satellites will deliver as much as a threefold increase in available capacity by 2027 when the entire constellation is fully deployed.

The O3b mPOWER constellation went live last year, although the first six satellites to be launched contain a design glitch that has caused power modules to switch off, thus shortening their operational life. Four of them were already in orbit before the glitch was discovered in August 2023.

The latest pair of satellites have been redesigned to eliminate the power issue, as are the previous pair of satellites launched in December 2024.

“With this launch we continue adding incremental capacity to our initial O3b mPOWER constellation, strengthening our MEO network and delivering high throughput and predictable low latency services at scale,” said SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh in a statement.

SES has signed mPOWER deals with operators in Ecuador, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, the Cook Islands, Senegal and other countries in Africa, among others. India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm plans to use O3b mPOWER satellites for its satellite broadband service JioSpaceFiber.