Satellite Connectivity

Resilient & Agile SATCOM

SES Space & Defense provides the U.S. government and key allies with consistent, dependable, and constant access to space communications. With over 70 satellites in orbit covering 99 percent of the world’s population, SES Space & Defense’s satellite constellations are resilient and agile, delivering mission-critical communication solutions across all domains.

We are the first to integrate a true all-orbit strategy, harnessing the power of Lower Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and Geostationary Orbit (GEO) to fill orbit coverage and latency caps. We believe in tailoring solutions to meet our customers’ unique mission requirements, recognizing that every orbit provides distinct value for different applications. Our investment in the all-orbit domain with strategic industry partners enables us to deliver best-in-class satellite services to our customers across every mission, landscape, and orbit.

O3b mPOWER

Performance Above All

O3b mPOWER was specifically designed to support our government mission partners operating on the tactical edge, including airborne, maritime, fixed, and communications-on-the-move (COTM) missions.

O3b mPOWER provides unmatched committed information rates (CIR), enabling defense agencies to meet demanding operational requirements with unprecedented performance, flexibility, and scale. O3b mPOWER seamlessly delivers time-sensitive information government organizations require to make decisions in real-time. For operations where security and enhanced control are fundamental, only O3b mPOWER’s Sovereign Services support government-preferred waveforms and connect directly to government gateways. O3b mPOWER Managed Services also offers maritime and fixed enterprise operations featuring the same high-performance connectivity via SES-owned and operated gateways relying on our established commercial waveforms and modems.

MEO Global Services (MGS) Program

Streamlined Government Access to O3b mPOWER

The Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) Global Services (MGS) Program leverages SES’s second-generation O3b mPOWER system to provide critical resilient SATCOM capabilities to the United States, Luxembourg, and NATO Nation Signatories in defense, security, and disaster recovery.​

The MGS Program will provide MEO capacity via O3b mPOWER to the Contract Participant Nations (currently the US and Luxembourg) on an enterprise level through the NATO partnership, increasing affordability through volume pricing and shared costs.

Redefining Throughput

Guaranteed access to multiple gigabits per second (Gbps) of O3b mPOWER capability, distributed globally and applied dynamically

Flexibility

Secure and uncontended bandwidth enabled through commercial gateways or dedicated sovereign (Government-owned/Government-operated) gateways

Open Architecture

Open network architecture, accommodating government-defined terminals and modems

Certified Terminals

mPOWER certified and affordable user terminals that support government and defense applications and missions, available via lease and purchase

FOR MORE INFORMATION

MGS U.S. Contact

Gus Anderson
VP Strategic Business Development
gustaf.anderson@sessd.com

MGS Europe Contact

Roy Sielaff
VP Europe
roy.sielaff@ses.com

LEO

Low-latency LEO satellite services

SES Space & Defense is the first COMSATCOM operator to integrate an all-orbit strategy. Gain the proven ability to operate, manage, and support multi-band, multi-orbit satellite networks enhanced through vendor-agnostic integration. As a value-added and authorized reseller of One Web Technology (OWT) and Starshield, SES Space & Defense’s portfolio provides full multi-orbit satellite solutions across LEO, MEO, and GEO. The incorporation of OWT and Starshield into SES’s existing MEO and GEO services increases the resiliency for continuous connectivity and mission-tailored performance.

The Power of Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)

Delivering MEO-empowered solutions

The O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation is a high throughput satellite (HTS) constellation delivering fiber-like connectivity to users with unparalleled reliability enabling government agencies and military organizations to provide the same communication capabilities and connectivity to the tactical edge that is available on base or in their offices.

Why MEO?

When it comes to high-performance connectivity, there are four factors that only MEO can deliver: high throughput, predictable low-latency, high network availability, and flexibility.

Optimal Orbit

At an altitude 8000km above Earth, MEO is the ideal orbit for navigation and communication satellites. MEO is distanced far enough from the Earth's surface to provide coverage across 96% of the globe and low enough to guarantee low-latency and high throughput up to multiple gigabits of uncontended capacity.

Why Orbit Matters

The distance separating a satellite from Earth results in higher latency and can make a difference in the performance of critical government communications systems and applications.

How GEO, MEO, and LEO stack up:

three types of orbits

Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)
Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)
Low Earth Orbit ( LEO)

GEO

36,000km

Medium latency (~700 msec)

Very large Earth view

Few fixed gateways

Stationary antennas (3 satellites for global coverage)

Proven, deployable technology

ngso MEO

~8,000km

Low latency (~150 msec)

Large Earth view

Several flexible gateways

1-hour slow tracking (6 satellites for coverage)

Proven, deployable technology

ngso LEO

~1,000km

Very low latency (~50 msec)

Small Earth view

Numerous local gateways

10-minute fast tracking (100's-1,000's needed for coverage)

Technology still in development for satellite internet

Geostationary (GEO) High Throughput Satellite

Global Reach with Superior Performance

Providing global reach with superior performance, Geostationary Earth Orbiting (GEO) High Throughput Satellites (HTS) deliver global coverage and robust Ku-band and Ka-band services leveraging flexible spot-beam technology, and when coupled with the O3b MEO constellation, we offer the industry’s only multi-orbit, multi-band offering that provides unprecedented network resiliency and intelligent, application-aware load balancing.

GovSat-1

Military grade resiliency with commercial innovation

Orbit

Geostationary orbit at 21.5° E

Coverage

Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South East Asia and substantial maritime coverage over the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas, as well as the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Military Frequencies

Features high-power X-band, Military Ka-band, and an advanced Global X-band beam.

Resiliency

High-powered, fully steerable spot beams equipped with anti-jamming features and fully encrypted telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C).

Applications

Communications-on-the-move (COTM), Communication-on-the-pause (COTP), and Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR).

Hosted Payload Solutions

Providing a lower-cost, faster road to space for government and military

When many government satellite programs are experiencing schedule delays, cancellations, and budgetary challenges, commercially hosted payloads can accelerate program schedules, fill operational gaps, execute proof-of-concept activities, and provide a timely and affordable means of placing equipment into orbit. SES Space & Defense specializes in end-to-end hosted payload solutions providing a lower-cost and faster road to space for government and military missions. Hosted payloads are government-dedicated payloads such as transponders, imaging sensors, and space environmental monitors hosted on board commercial satellites providing a subsidized ride to space and eliminating the need for an independent satellite system.

Space Data Relays

Space relay for C and Ka broadband

SES Space & Defense is implementing a space relay leveraging global C-band satellite coverage and high throughput Ka-band relay capability leveraging the O3b mPOWER MEO constellation.

This multi-band, multi-orbit approach enables NASA and the emerging space relay market, commercial and government users’ access to assured low-rate relay capability and high throughput, low-latency data relay capability utilizing proven radio frequency (RF) systems.