On 16 December 2022 at 5:48 p.m., SpaceX launched the SES O3b mPOWER 1 & 2 mission to medium-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. After stage separation, the Falcon 9 first stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

This was the eighth launch and landing for this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, and one Starlink mission.

The rocket was visible only for a few moments before disappearing into an overcast sky.

SES announced today that the first two O3b mPOWER satellites were successfully launched into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States, at 5:48 pm local time.

Built by Boeing and designed to deliver unprecedented performance with first-of-its-kind software-driven payload, O3b mPOWER is SES’s second-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) system. Customers leveraging O3b mPOWER are set to transform their operations and benefit from terabit-level scale; the highest, most flexible, guaranteed throughput; round trip latency of less than 150 milliseconds and unmatched service availability.

The O3b mPOWER ecosystem is easily scalable and comprises an initial 11 powerful satellites, each equipped with more than 5,000 digitally formed beams, and an extensive next-generation O3b mPOWER ground infrastructure. It enables SES to address current and future connectivity needs for governments, mobile network operators, energy companies, world-class cruises, and enterprises across the globe. Key customers who have signed up for O3b mPOWER include Microsoft, Princess Cruises, Marlink, Jio Platforms, Orange, Claro Brasil and the newly-announced Vodafone Cook Islands.

O3b mPOWER commercial service is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2023.