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SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket has secured two more launch contracts, this time with longtime customer and prolific satellite communications provider SES.
In 2016, SES acquired the satellite operator and communications provider O3B Networks, inheriting a network of 12 O3B satellites that it would later transform into a full constellation of 20 satellites. Built by contractor Thales Alenia Space, the design of the O3B spacecraft was ironically quite similar to the Starlink satellites that SpaceX would begin deploying several years later, weighing around 700 kg (1,540 lb) and each offering a bandwidth of approximately 16 gigabits per second (Gbps).
The original O3B constellation was eventually launched on five separate Russian Soyuz rockets arranged by Arianespace. Today, some 16 months after O3B’s final launch, SES’s latest announcement confirms that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets will launch an entire improved constellation called the O3B mPower – adding two more launches to the manifesto responsible for the society.
Compared to O3B, O3B mPower will be a major upgrade, beating the overall bandwidth of the original Medium Earth Orbit (MEO; ~ 8,000 km / 5,000 mi) constellation by at least a factor of 3. SES has yet to reveal many technical details on each spacecraft, but the implication is that the global constellation – currently believed to be 11 satellites – will add several terabits per second (Tbps) of global communications capacity.
SES (and O3B before the acquisition) had already ordered seven mPower ~ 17O3B satellites from Boeing and selected SpaceX for its launch services. Now, the company has purchased four more satellites built by Boeing, launch services from SpaceX, and insurance for a whopping $ 570 million, or more than $ 140 million each. For reference, based on statements CEO Elon Musk made over the past ~ 18 months, SpaceX may have built and launched nearly 600 operational Starlink satellites – each offering ~ 20 Gbps of bandwidth and latency. much lower – for roughly the same amount, assuming ~ $ 20 million per Falcon 9 launch, $ 300,000 per satellite and at least $ 150 million for initial development.
Of course, for the money, SES will get a system that can do things that SpaceX’s current generation of Starlink satellites can’t really compete with, and will focus primarily on the in-flight and maritime connectivity markets. The individual mPower O3B antenna beams would be capable of transmitting “several gigabits per second”.
Regardless, the strong and ongoing relationship between SES and SpaceX comes as no huge surprise. SES has flown Falcon 9 rockets six times and was both SpaceX’s first geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) launch client in 2013 and the first company in history to launch a rocket thruster Flight proven in 2017. The latest launch contracts from SES ensure the relationship is guaranteed until 2024.
SpaceX is now slated to launch four separate O3B mPower missions, starting with three three-satellite Falcon 9 launches in Q3 2021, Q1 2022 and H2 2022 and culminating (for now) with a launch of two satellites at the earliest ( NET) H2 2024.
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