Hold the champagne: SES CSO says MEO satellite launch is no cake walk

Together with Boeing and SpaceX, SES recently launched two additional O3b mPOWER satellites, the fifth and sixth in a constellation of 13 medium-Earth orbit (MEO) satellites.

Kelsey Ziser, Senior Editor

January 2, 2024

At a Glance

Partnership with Boeing on manufacturing and testing the satellites (02:57)
The many steps to a successful satellite launch (05:35)
How the satellites use SDN and 5G (11:20)

John-Paul (JP) Hemingway, chief strategy officer for SES, joins the podcast to explain how the satellite company prepares for and executes a satellite launch. SES recently launched two additional O3b mPOWER satellites, the fifth and sixth in a constellation of 13 medium-Earth orbit (MEO) satellites.

Hemingway explains how SES tests the satellites with Boeing, its manufacturing partner, and what it takes to launch a satellite with SpaceX. He also discusses the software-defined networking (SDN) and 5G capabilities of the O3b mPOWER satellites and which markets SES provides connectivity to.

Click on the caption button for a lightly edited transcript.

Here are a few topics we cover:

Background on Hemingway and his role at SES (00:26)
What it takes to get ready to launch a satellite (01:24)
Partnership with Boeing on manufacturing and testing the satellites (02:57)
Teaming up with SpaceX to launch the satellite (03:23)
The many steps to a successful satellite launch (05:35)
Progress toward completing this satellite constellation (09:10)
How the satellites use SDN and 5G (11:20)
Use cases and markets for MEO satellite connectivity (15:55)
Differences between MEO and LEO (low-Earth orbit) satellites (18:15)
What's next for the O3b mPOWER satellite constellation (24:18)
*Editor's Note: At 25:50 Hemingway misstates that there will be a total of 14 satellites. There will be a total of 13 satellites in this O3b mPOWER constellation.

About the Author(s)

Kelsey Ziser

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Kelsey is a senior editor at Light Reading, co-host of the Light Reading podcast, and host of the "What's the story?" podcast.

Her interest in the telecom world started with a PR position at Connect2 Communications, which led to a communications role at the FREEDM Systems Center, a smart grid research lab at N.C. State University. There, she orchestrated their webinar program across college campuses and covered research projects such as the center's smart solid-state transformer.

Kelsey enjoys reading four (or 12) books at once, watching movies about space travel, crafting and (hoarding) houseplants.

Kelsey is based in Raleigh, N.C.

See more from Kelsey Ziser

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Hold the champagne: SES CSO says MEO satellite launch is no cake walk

At a Glance

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