This year, the Government Satellite Report had the opportunity to attend SATELLITE 2025, where industry leaders from around the world came together to discuss the top innovations, technological breakthroughs, and pressing challenges emerging today.
During the event, Via Satellite’s Senior Editorial Director, Mark Holmes, sat down with SES’s CEO Adel Al-Saleh to take a deep dive into some of these innovations and challenges. Throughout their discussion, Al-Saleh explored a wide variety of topics, such as the competition in the satellite industry, the need for fast and agile R&D cycles, the fast-changing environment, as well as which markets are well-positioned for growth in the satellite space in the near future. Al-Saleh also talked about the partnership with Lynk Global that will address the high-growth direct-to-device (D2D) segment.
Debunking stereotypes
Holmes opened the session by asking how satellite operators and providers can keep pace with Starlink’s recent string of contract deals and wins. Al-Saleh answered by pointing out that all of the major satellite players are winning massive deals and contracts, but Starlink’s wins are more frequently covered by the market media and quickly amplified. “Yet, if you look at the performance of other companies, we can observe that often their business is growing. While Starlink is definitely doing a great job, I think we’re all winning our fair share of big deals. There is incredible demand in the market, and it’s growing,” reassured Al-Saleh.
Al-Saleh cited SES’s recent MEO Global Services (MGS) deal with NATO, the Luxembourg government, and the U.S. Department of Defense as a major win that exemplifies the growing demand for MEO services by the government and military. “It’s a big deal,” said Al-Saleh. “There are deals that are in the triple-digit millions.”
Al-Saleh encourages a closer look on the business performance of the big satellite players, that is generally signaling the industry success. “We’ve got to look at the performances of the businesses, they demonstrate that there’s plenty of demand in the marketplace,” explained Al-Saleh. “I think the narrative needs to shift a little bit more towards this. Especially if we do not talk about just one deal, but look at our performance consistently over multiple quarters.”
Acceleration on Innovation Cycles
One topic that came up during the discussion was whether SES will continue to work with traditional suppliers when investing in next-generation technologies for GEO satellites, or if the company would look for alternative approaches in how it invests in new technology.
Al-Saleh explained that the industry needs to move away from the waterfall development style and move towards becoming faster and more agile as it pertains to evolving satellite networks in an iterative way. “That means the supply chain needs to adapt and change,” he said. “I think there’s a willingness to change, but they’re challenged in doing it. So we’ll see over the next few years whether it’s evolved.”
Al-Saleh also believes that the current innovation and R&D cycles in the satellite industry must evolve: “When we think about starting a project, a particular constellation, or a big satellite, we start with a white piece of paper every time, and then it can take four or five years to introduce a new model. That is too long in our industry.”
SES’s goal is to introduce innovative, new space technologies regularly and fast. “Rather than waiting in a five-year cycle to get to another milestone and launch a constellation, we need to do it much more frequently,” he said. “It’s a challenge for the industry, that everybody understands and it will be interesting to see how it evolves.”
Markets Poised for Growth
As for the markets that are best positioned for satellite growth in the near future, Al-Saleh is placing his bets on the government and cruise industries. “The vertical government market is the largest and the most attractive market for satellite technology and operations,” he said. “And it will continue to be for the foreseeable future. I’m also very excited about the cruise business. It continues to grow, and there’s an insatiable appetite for more bandwidth in these big floating cities.”
Al-Saleh also believes that the automotive industry should not be counted out. “The automotive industry has put out its architecture for the connected car, and they have made it very clear that they will complement the terrestrial network in the cars with satellite networks. And with direct-to-device technologies, smaller terminals, and more powerful satellites – I think there’s more to come. Just watch that space.”