This was revealed by Alan Mattos, Senior Solutions Engineer at the company, during Satellite Map Day 2025, organized by Convergencialatina. Three more satellites will be launched next year, adding to the eight that are already operational.

Just a few days ago, the MEO 7 and 8 satellites of the mPower network, which were launched in December of last year, began operations. “We are convinced that MEO has significant potential and key differentiators, as it offers a balance between much lower latency compared to GEO and much broader coverage,” he explained.

Currently, SES’s MEO fleet provides coverage up to 50° latitude, reaching 80% of the territory and 90% of the population. They plan to launch new satellites beyond 50° in inclined orbits to cover 100% of the globe. “Launching and deploying more satellites in this orbit will allow us to increase the capacity of our constellation and improve link performance. The fleet will exceed 100 satellites,” he stated.

In the short and medium term, a key driver for increasing the capacity and application potential of medium earth orbit is the Iris2 program. It is led by the European Commission and the SpaceRISE Consortium, of which SES is a member. This constellation includes satellites not only in medium earth orbit (18) but also in low earth orbit (264).

Multi-orbit. “We are convinced that we are living in a multiorbit era,” said Mattos. In this context, he revealed that two GEO satellites are currently under construction and are scheduled to launch next year.

“New technologies are coming that will expand the range of applications we can support through multiorbit solutions,” the engineer explained. He added that they have a unified connectivity management system that enables the integration of multiorbit solutions.

Finally, he noted that each solution is better suited to a specific orbit. For example, non-critical applications that are not latency-sensitive are a good use case for LEO. GEO, on the other hand, can be used for critical applications that are not latency sensitive, while MEO is best positioned for scenarios requiring high reliability and low latency.