SES-17
| Company type | Communications satellite |
|---|---|
| Industry | Satellite communications |
| Founded | October 24, 2021 |
| Founder | SES |
| Headquarters | Luxembourg , Luxembourg |
| Products | Satellite internet services |
| Parent | SES |
SES-17 represents a high-capacity, fully electric geostationary communications satellite owned and operated by SES, with design and manufacturing led by Thales Alenia Space. It was launched on 24 October 2021 from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana using an Ariane 5ECA rocket. After deployment, SES-17 was stationed at 67.1° West in May 2022 and achieved full operational status by June 2022.
This satellite enhances SES's geostationary fleet and complements its medium Earth orbit constellations, including O3b and O3b mPOWER, offering connectivity solutions spanning North America, South America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic region.
Satellite description
Built upon the three-axis stabilized SpaceBusNEO 200 platform, SES-17 has a launch mass of , generates 15 kW of power, and is designed for a service duration of 15 years. It utilizes electric propulsion exclusively for orbit raising and station keeping maneuvers, which improves operational efficiency.
The satellite features nearly 200 Ka-band spot beams of different sizes, focusing primarily on providing connectivity to aircraft within its coverage area. SES-17 is SES’s inaugural geostationary Ka-band high-throughput satellite equipped with a fully digital payload through Thales’ Spaceflex VHTS Processor—a Digital Transparent Processor developed with support from CNES and ESA. This advanced technology allows for flexible in-orbit frequency planning, enabling dynamic network reconfiguration in real time to address changing bandwidth requirements via broadcast, multicast, or mesh networking, thereby maximizing throughput and bandwidth efficiency.
Managed alongside SES’s O3b mPOWER constellation by the Adaptive Resource Control (ARC) software—created in partnership with Kythera Space Solutions—SES-17 benefits from autonomous optimization of both spaceborne and terrestrial resources to adapt to evolving customer connectivity demands.
History
On 12 September 2016, SES commissioned the SES-17 Ka-band high-throughput satellite from Thales Alenia Space, the primary contractor behind SES's O3b satellites in France and Italy. Intended to deliver mobility connectivity across the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, SES-17 was originally slated for launch in 2020. Its initial anchor customer was Thales Avionics’ FlytLIVE airline passenger connectivity service. Prior to SES-17’s deployment, FlytLIVE operated using capacity on Hughes satellites EchoStar XVII and EchoStar XIX, as well as SES’s own AMC-15 and AMC-16. The combined investment for the satellite, launch services, and ground gateway infrastructure amounted to roughly US$500 million.
In September 2017, SES selected Arianespace to conduct the launch of SES-17 scheduled for 2021. Two years later, SES collaborated with Kythera Space Solutions to develop the ARC (Adaptive Resource Control) software aimed at dynamically managing power distribution, throughput capacity, beam allocation, and frequency resources on SES-17 and future high-throughput satellites.
According to SES's 2020 Annual Report, the launch was initially projected for July 2021 but was subsequently postponed to August and then October due to technical challenges. The successful liftoff occurred on 24 October 2021 at 02:10 UTC.
By May 2022, SES-17 had arrived at its designated orbital slot at 67.1° West and entered full operational service following testing in June. In mid-2022, Spirit Airlines switched its inflight Wi-Fi service from Hughes satellites to SES-17, achieving speeds up to 400 Mbps across its Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft fleet—earning recognition as "the fastest Wi-Fi service of any US-based airline."
In August 2023, SES revealed that the combined contract backlog for SES-17 alongside the forthcoming O3b mPOWER high-throughput MEO satellite constellation—which is anticipated to begin commercial operations by year-end—surpassed US$1 billion (gross $1.025 billion; fully protected $835 million).
See also
- SES – the operator and proprietor of SES-17
- List of SES satellites – detailed compilation of satellites managed by SES
- O3b – satellite constellation for connectivity owned by SES
- O3b mPOWER – SES’s advanced next-generation satellite network for connectivity