SES's O3b MEO Satellites Successfully in Orbit

The four latest satellites in the O3b constellation built by Thales Alenia Space, JV between Thales 67% and Leonardo 33%, as prime contractor for SES were successfully launched today from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana (South America) by a  Soyuz rocket operated by  Arianespace.

With the launch of these four latest satellites Thales Alenia Space is supporting SES to scale its current MEO constellation to 20, which started in June 2013 with 4 satellites.

Thanks to these high-performance satellites, SES Networks, the data business unit of SES, offers communications services to telecommunications, maritime, aeronautical, and energy markets, as well as governments and institutions across the world.

O3b satellites are positioned at an altitude of 8,000 km along the equator and are four times closer to the Earth than satellites in geostationary orbit. Operating in the Ka-band, they offer telecommunications and Internet connectivity services at a fiber-like speed across the globe.

“Thales Alenia Space is very proud of this successful last launch – said Jean-Loïc Galle CEO Thales Alenia Space – By building O3b constellation  we are helping our customer SES grow their market and  improve communications services across the world . Thanks to our unrivaled expertise we are ready to offer new telecom solutions that provide even higher performance, with more integrated and digital systems.”

Thales Alenia Space’s  global leadership in the constellation market . As prime contractor for a total of 125 satellites in three constellations, Globalstar 2 (24), O3b (20) and Iridium® NEXT (81), Thales Alenia Space is clearly the benchmark partner in the development and deployment of low and medium orbit telecom satellite constellations.