SES: €980m orders on mPOWER
December 22, 2022
By Chris Forrester
SES CEO Steve Collar, speaking following the successful launch on December 16th of two O3b/mPOWER satellites, says that its all-important backlog of orders for capacity on the mPOWER fleet has grown to €980 million, up from the €950 million confirmed earlier this year. The backlog covers the mPOWER fleet and usage on board its geostationary SES-17 satellite launched in October 2021 to serve the Americas.
The launch of these two mPOWER medium Earth orbiting satellites are just the start of the overall mission. Two more pairs will launch in January, and again in February. These launches will be handled by SpaceX. Later in 2023 another pair will launch with the final three (making a total of 11) will launch next winter in late 2023/early 2024. SpaceX will handle these flights.
All of these mPOWER satellites have been or are being built by Boeing using their BSS-702X versions, with electrical propulsion and a highly flexible 5,000 beams (per satellite) of adjustable and reprogrammable focus from the ground.
The satellites were ordered back in 2017 but Covid has not helped in the supply dates. They were originally expected to launch in 2021.
The mPOWER service will go live once the first six are launched and tested in flight. The current thinking is that operations will start in Q3/2023.