SpaceX F9 - O3b mPOWER Mission 1 - SLC-40

[Grendal]

Launch Date: December 16
Launch Window: 5:48 pm EST (2:48pm PST, 22:48 UTC)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Florida
Core Booster Recovery: ASDS - ASOG
Booster: B1067.8
Fairings: Reused - 4th and 5th
Mass: 3.4 tonnes
Orbit: MEO
Yearly Launch Number: 58th

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the first two O3b mPOWER broadband internet satellites into Medium Earth Orbit for SES of Luxembourg. The satellites, built by Boeing, will provide internet services over most of the populated world, building on SES’s O3b network. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

[Grendal]

 

[Grendal]

May be delayed as well.

 

[Electroman]

Is this providing similar services like Starlink and OneWeb?

 

[Grendal]

Is this providing similar services like Starlink and OneWeb?

No. This is Medium Earth Orbit. Starlink and OneWeb are LEO constellations.
The ISS is around 400 km, Starlink is 550 km, MEO is around 25,000 km, and GEO is around 42,000 km.

Medium Earth orbit - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Comparison_satellite_navigation_orbits.svg

 

[Cosmacelf]

While the orbital technology isn't the same, this company does provide Internet access like Starlink does. It's just that their customers are going to be larger commercial customers like telecom companies, cellular backhaul, airplane and sea, military, large corporations, etc.

Each of these new breed of telecom companies is going to specialize and find their own markets. Starlink, however, appears to want to move into almost all these markets including of course direct to consumer. It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

 

[Grendal]

 

[Electroman]

While the orbital technology isn't the same, this company does provide Internet access like Starlink does

Thanks. It appears that their bandwidths are much higher than Starlink (in Gbps) and they tout a low latency, but it can't be less than Starlink given their orbits are MEO vs LEO.

O3B = Other 3 Billion (without the internet)
mPower = Empowering them

Given that their customers are commercial entities, I am guessing you still need ground stations and last mile cable connections

 

[Grendal]

Delayed an hour and a half.

 

[HVM]

"S1 landing confirmed" -mission control

https://twitter.com/x/status/1603888159057743875

 

[HVM]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1603915157746642944

Deployment of both O3b mPOWER satellites confirmed

 

[ecarfan]

At T+ 7:21 the stage 1 telemetry display froze; the data stopped updating. Then there was no video of the landing. Finally, minutes after the scheduled landing time, the booster was shown on the deck of ASOG, a bit more off center than usual. It looked pretty windy.

 

[Grendal]

There was an odd gas or smoke coming off the booster during the initial boost phase. Luckily, the separation went just as expected but when the signal for the booster was lost just after the entry burn, I thought the booster was destroyed. The lack of the comments from background mission team confirming recovery solidified that belief. I was happily surprised when they finally showed the booster on the ASDS. The weather out there had to be pretty bad. The brief moments showing the booster showed water splashing over the deck.

 

[bxr140]

Given that their customers are commercial entities, I am guessing you still need ground stations and last mile cable connections

Yes to Gas, no to last mile wire.

It doesn't really matter the customer or even the constellation design--the network architecture for satellite internet service is fundamentally the same regardless if its starlink or mpower or something in GEO. The sole purpose of the space infrastructure is to connect an entity (person, company, whatever) that doesn't have internet access to The Internet. To do that, the constellation needs to communicate with The User and, very separately, communicate with The Internet. Architecturally on the satellite they're all but two separate payloads. On the ground, communicating with The Internet is done through a ground station bolted on top of fiber. Communicating with The User is done through the user terminal--in the case of Starlink, a Dishy.