SES has completed its network of the six medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites for its mPOWER constellation.
The two O3b mPOWER satellites were successfully launched into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States, at 4:08pm local time.
“With the fifth and sixth O3b mPOWER satellites launched and going operational in the next few months, we are gearing up to deliver the high-performance connectivity services our customers need. By building resiliency into the network, we are confident our customers will be able to depend on us to deliver the reliable and secure connectivity required to run their operations,” said Ruy Pinto, CEO of SES.
The satellites were due to be launched by Elon Musk’s Space-X in June.
The O3b mPOWER fleet initially comprises 11 high-throughput and low-latency satellites in a medium Earth orbit (MEO), along with ground infrastructure and intelligent software, to provide multiple terabits of global broadband connectivity for applications including cellular backhaul to remote rural locations and simultaneous international IP trunking.
Last month, SES confirmed it will add to the constellation two more satellites built by Boeing, bringing the total number of O3b mPOWER satellites to 13.
In August the satellite operator announced that extra tests were needed on the next two craft in the fleet after a glitch had caused the sporadic tripping off of power modules of the first four.
