SES – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX completes launch doubleheader with sunset liftoff from Cape Canaveral

March 17, 2023 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 rockets in a span of a little more than four hours Friday, a record-setting day that began with the launch of 52 Starlink internet satellites from California and ended with the sunset liftoff of two SES television broadcast payloads from Florida.

SES to complete C-band clearing program with SpaceX dual-satellite launch

March 16, 2023 Stephen Clark

SES, the international communications satellite operator, plans to send two more C-band television broadcasting spacecraft into orbit from Cape Canaveral Friday night atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a mission that will help clear spectrum for transition to 5G network services.

James Webb, OneWeb highlight Arianespace’s 2021 launch schedule

January 11, 2021 Stephen Clark

The planned Halloween launch of the James Webb Space Telescope — one of eight Ariane 5 launches left before the rocket’s retirement — and a series of flights to build out OneWeb’s satellite internet network highlight Arianespace’s schedule this year.

SES orders two more Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX

August 20, 2020 Stephen Clark

SES announced Thursday it has tapped SpaceX for two additional Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral to deliver more Boeing-built O3b mPower broadband satellites into orbit, adding to a pair of Falcon 9 flights ordered by SES last year to launch the first batch of mPower platforms beginning in late 2021.

ULA, SpaceX win contracts to launch satellites for SES in 2022

August 5, 2020 Stephen Clark

SES has selected United Launch Alliance and SpaceX to launch up to five new commercial C-band communications satellites from Cape Canaveral in 2022 aboard Atlas 5 and Falcon 9 rockets, officials announced Wednesday.

Intelsat, SES buy 10 C-band broadcast satellites from U.S. manufacturers

June 16, 2020 Stephen Clark

Intelsat and SES, operators of the two largest fleets of geostationary communications satellites, have ordered 10 spacecraft from Maxar, Northrop Grumman and Boeing for launches beginning in 2022 to replace C-band capacity being transitioned to 5G cellular network services.

Coronavirus concerns force closure of NASA center, some space industry events canceled

March 9, 2020 Stephen Clark

An annual meeting of planetary scientists near Houston has been canceled due to concerns about the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, and NASA has instructed its 1,200 employees at a field center in California to work from home until further notice after a worker there tested positive for the illness. But a major satellite industry conference in Washington is going ahead as planned this week.

SES selects SpaceX for two Falcon 9 launches

September 12, 2019 Stephen Clark

Two SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches will loft seven high-throughput broadband satellites for SES’s O3b mPower constellation in 2021, SES announced this week.

Soyuz launch deploys last of O3b’s first-generation broadband satellites

April 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

The launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana with four more satellites Thursday to join SES’s O3b broadband network will help satisfy growing bandwidth demands in Latin America, Africa and the Pacific islands until the deployment of a new generation of upgraded spacecraft in 2021, SES officials said.

Live coverage: Four more O3b broadband launch aboard Soyuz rocket

April 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

Four more satellites for SES Networks’ O3b broadband fleet launched Thursday aboard a Soyuz rocket. Liftoff of the Soyuz launcher from the Guiana Space Center in South America occurred at 1703 GMT (1:03 p.m. EDT).