Eutelsat hurls another 20 satellites into orbit

The satellites, which were built by Airbus US Space & Defense, hitched a ride on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 which lifted off last week from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

For those interested in the logistics of LEO launches, we’re told the satellites separated successfully from the vehicle and were dispensed in 10 batches over a period of 20 minutes, and signal acquisition was confirmed on all 20 of them.

“We are delighted to see the successful launch and deployment of new OneWeb satellites,” said Eva Berneke, CEO of Eutelsat Group. “These satellites will strengthen our network services, improving overall performance for our customers. As we celebrate the anniversary of the merger with Eutelsat and OneWeb, we are excited by the growing demand for our multi-orbit services and we remain committed to delivering value for our customers and shareholders. I want to thank and congratulate the teams at Eutelsat Group and SpaceX for their hard work to facilitate this launch.”

As the above quote mentions this latest launch occurs roughly a year on from the merger between Eutelsat and OneWeb, which created a combined geostationary orbit (GEO) and LEO operation. Eutelsat Group says it is ‘uniquely positioned’ to offer high-throughput capacity via GEO alongside the ‘low-latency, high-speed global connectivity provided by LEO satellites.’

Since the merger, Eutelsat says it has seen a ‘significant increase in demand’ for such multi-orbit services, and that it is collaborating with other players in the satellite game such as Intelsat, Inmarsat Maritime, and Hughes to deliver space based connectivity in various settings.

The merger closed in September last year, somewhat later than the date they seemed to be initially gunning for when the plans to do so were announced the previous July. At the time the firms listed areas they intend to go after with the combined service as fixed connectivity, including backhaul and corporate networks, government services, and mobile connectivity, like maritime and in-flight comms. It was also stated that Eutelsat’s core broadcast and video services presence would be retained, and hinted at the possibility for new IP native video services.