SES Launches Final Three O3b mPOWER Satellites to Expand Global Connectivity

SES launched its final three O3b mPOWER satellites on September 13, completing the launches for its initial 13-spacecraft communications constellation, the Luxembourg company said. A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:49 p.m. local time, or 18:49 UTC, carrying satellites 11, 12 and 13.

The mission expands SES’s second-generation medium Earth orbit network. Ten O3b mPOWER satellites are already operating, according to SES. The company expects the new spacecraft to enter service by mid-2027, so the successful launch does not mean their additional communications capacity is available immediately.

Boeing built the satellites and announced their delivery on September 2. Its statement said the spacecraft would increase capacity and support low-latency connections with dedicated bandwidth. Boeing identified governments, mobile operators, commercial airlines and cruise lines among users of SES’s medium Earth orbit network.

SES said the new satellites would strengthen connectivity for businesses, governments, transport and telecommunications customers in remote or poorly served locations. The operator described services ranging from tens of megabits to several gigabits per second at a site. Those figures describe the system’s service range, rather than a uniform speed guaranteed to every user.

Chief executive Adel Al-Saleh said the launch would reinforce SES’s ability to provide secure, resilient and scalable connections for governments, enterprises, cloud providers and mobility customers. He said the company was combining technologies and different orbits to meet changing demand. These are the operator’s stated objectives for its network expansion.

The next steps are orbit raising and initialization before the three satellites enter service, Boeing said. SES expects additional flexibility and resilience across O3b mPOWER, alongside progress toward future secure communications, space data relay and hosted payloads. The mid-2027 service target remains a company forecast, with commissioning still ahead.