The O3b mPower range will be a medium Earth orbit (MEO) constellation, initially of seven satellites with thousands of electronically-steered beams that can be dynamically adjusted to serve customers in different areas.
Steve Collar, CEO of SES, said: “Working with SpaceX as our launch provider is fitting because in the last seven years we have already jointly made multiple revolutionary industry advancements that make access to space innovation more cost-efficient and unlock new opportunities in critical markets.”
Gwynne Shotwell (pictured), president and COO at SpaceX, said: “SES has been an important partner for SpaceX – fully supporting our efforts to make rocket reusability a reality. We are proud to play a part in SES bringing revolutionary connectivity solutions to the market.”
Services that SES will address with the new range include telecoms and cloud, as well communications-on-the-move and government services. Launches will start in 2021.
“Momentum in the O3b mPower ecosystem is accelerating quickly as we continue to build the right partnerships to bring this massively innovative communications system to market,” said Collar.
O3b mPower series also will include a variety of intelligent, application-specific customer edge terminals integrated with SES’s terrestrial network and dynamically optimised using the recently announced adaptive resource control software system.
