SES Completes O3b mPOWER Satellite Constellation

On September 13, 2026, SES marked a turning point in its ambitious space‑based communications programme. At 2:49 pm local time, a SpaceX Falcon 9 roared off the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40, carrying three sleek O3b mPOWER satellites destined for medium Earth orbit.

The trio—designated O3b‑mPOWER‑11, ‑12 and ‑13—completes the 13‑satellite constellation that SES has been building over the past few years. "This launch is a defining milestone for SES," said Adel Al‑Saleh, the company's CEO, noting that the finished fleet will sharpen the network’s performance, resilience and reach.

What does this mean for users? In plain language, the new satellites will boost high‑performance connectivity for a wide range of customers—governments needing secure links, enterprises demanding massive data pipelines, cloud providers expanding their edge services, and mobility operators that keep planes, ships and trains online in remote corners of the globe.

Once the spacecraft settle into their MEO slots and become fully operational—targeted for mid‑2027—they’ll join the ten O3b mPOWER units already beaming data from orbit. Together they can deliver anything from a modest few tens of megabits per second to multiple gigabits per second, tailored to the needs of each site.

The launch also underscores SES’s broader strategy of weaving together multiple orbital layers—geostationary, medium‑Earth and low‑Earth—to craft a seamless, flexible communications fabric. By adding extra capacity and redundancy, the network becomes less vulnerable to single‑point failures, a crucial advantage for mission‑critical applications.

Beyond the technical specs, SES sees this as a stepping stone toward next‑generation services: sovereign‑grade secure communications, space‑based data relays and hosted payloads that can support everything from scientific experiments to defence‑grade links.

SES, headquartered in Luxembourg and listed on the Paris and Luxembourg exchanges, continues to champion space as a tool for real‑world impact. The company’s vision—helping governments protect, businesses grow and people stay connected wherever they are—remains at the heart of every launch.