SpaceX’s Falcon 9 will launch 2 high-throughput communications satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) to launch on Monday, July 21st at 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM PDT from Space Launch Complex 40 from Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida.
The satellites are built by Boeing and operated by SES.
The Falcon 9 first stage will attempt to land on one of two East Coast ASDS in the Atlantic Ocean, after its flight.
Boeing’s [NYSE: BA] 9th and 10th O3b mPOWER satellites will launch with SES to be a content and network provider advancing the company’s effort to provide global connectivity from space. The satellites, which feature Boeing’s fully software-defined payload technology to actively allot power to meet user needs.
“The O3b mPOWER spacecraft are the most capable and flexible commercial satellites to ever operate in space,” said Michelle Parker, vice president, Boeing Space Mission Systems. “Many of us have tried to connect from an airplane or cruise ship and found the connection unreliable. Our software-defined payload technology allows SES to deliver high-speed, reliable connectivity, adapting in real-time to user demand. It’s a game changer, and the first eight satellites are showing users just how incredible this technology is.”
The O3b mPOWER system, SES’s second-generation constellation operating in medium Earth orbit (MEO, approximately 8,000 km from Earths’ surface), is designed to transform industries with terabit-level capacity, low latency, and unmatched service availability. These two spacecraft will join the first eight satellites already on orbit, further enhancing SES’s ability to deliver high-speed, reliable connectivity to its users.
“We’re very pleased to see just how well our first-of-its-kind technology is performing in space, as we continue to iterate and evolve it for other customers and missions,” said Parker.
The underlying payload technology flying aboard O3b mPOWER is also being hardened for military use aboard the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS)-11 and WGS-12 satellites Boeing is building for the United States Space Force. Boeing’s proven software-defined technology allows for more secure and reliable connectivity, even in a contested environment.