SES, K2 Space to Accelerate Development of Next-Generation MEO Network

On Tuesday 16 September 2025, Luxembourg satellite company SES and space technology firm K2 Space announced their collaboration to accelerate the development of SES's future Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) network.

The collaboration brings together SES's decades of experience operating global multi-orbit networks, including its O3b mPOWER MEO network, with K2 Space's agile engineering capabilities to co-develop future network infrastructure and technologies.

Earlier this year, SES and K2 Space started development activities to validate new network technologies geared for commercial and sovereign government applications. An on-orbit mission in the first quarter of 2026 is planned to be the first step towards launching SES's future MEO network. According to SES, the project involves a shift from traditional waterfall models to an iterative process intended to facilitate continuous innovation and responsiveness to market needs.

Development efforts are expected to span Europe and the United States (US), with the two companies aiming to overcome long development timelines, while accelerating delivery of high-value network services.

This initiative is a key component of SES's future MEO strategy, which emphasises modular growth, open architecture, software-defined capabilities and support for both commercial and governmental solutions. SES's future MEO network will be designed to support multi-mission capabilities such as hosted payloads, space situational awareness, direct-to-device data relay and sovereign services, whilst enabling reliable communications for mobility applications and resilient enterprise backhaul.

Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES explained: "Our future MEO network will evolve through agile innovation cycles, by collaborating with K2 Space and other trusted innovative partners, we're combining our solutions development experience and operational depth with NewSpace agility to develop a flexible, software-defined network that adapts to customer requirements."

Reflecting on the collaboration, Karan Kunjur, CEO of K2 Space, stated: "This collaboration is about rethinking how advanced space networks are developed, SES brings extensive operational expertise, and we bring the speed and flexibility of a technology startup. Together, we're building the foundation for a network that is scalable and adaptable to a broad range of applications."

EO