SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh, in an interview, has said that despite the recent examples of acquisitions it must move even faster. SES is awaiting regulatory approvals for its purchase of rival Intelsat, and has recently made an investment in Lynk Global which is building a low Earth orbiting fleet of satellites for Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) connections. SES is also a key player in the EU-backed IRIS2 highly secure constellation.

Speaking to Space News, Al-Saleh said that SES saw an opportunity in the D2C segment. He explained that Starlink had only 400 satellites in orbit suitable for D2C while AST SpaceMobile has just five in orbit and will be some time before it can offer a global service. He said that the SES-owned O3b mPOWER mid-Earth orbiting fleet was extremely suitable for the backbone network which is essential to facilitate traffic up and bring it back down to Earth in different locations.

Al-Saleh said that the mPOWER fleet was about to enjoy a significant upgrade when the seventh and eighth satellites go into service. These would boost capacity in orbit by 30 per cent. Then there would be another pair orbited in early 2026 and the final step in 2027. He said that by then the mPOWER fleet would be a very different constellation in terms of capacity, speed and coverage.

SES is also responsible for the supply of 18 of these mid-Earth orbiting satellites for the IRIS2 scheme. But he stressed that SES would not be stopping at IRIS2 but would continue to add capabilities every year.

He added that the SES fleet of the future would be more iterative, with satellites that are backward and forward compatible allowing for more flexibility.

Other posts by :

1. Russian satellite tumbling out of control
2. FCC boss praises AST SpaceMobile
3. Rakuten makes historic satellite video call
4. Rocket Lab confirms D2C ambitions
5. Turkey establishes satellite production ecosystem
6. Italy joins Germany in IRIS2 alternate thoughts
7. Kazakhstan to create museum at Yuri Gagarin launch site
8. AST SpaceMobile gets $42 or $1500 price target
9. Analyst: GEO bloodbath taking place

Categories: Articles, Satellite

Tags: Adel Al-Saleh, iris2, SES, Space