OQ launches two more NB-IoT satellites
- March 12, 2024
- Steve Rogerson
OQ Technology has launched two low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg space force base in California.
The Tiger-7 and 8 were built by Nanoavionics.
The Transporter-10 mission comes three months after the launch of Tiger-5 and 6 satellites on Transporter-9. The two satellites separated successfully from the upper stage of the rocket and were deployed into orbit 57 minutes post launch.
Both satellites are 6U sized nanosatellites carrying cell tower NB-IoT payloads. Contact with both satellites was established a few hours after launch using the Nanoavioncis (nanoavionics.com) ground station in Vilnus.
The two satellites join OQ’s 5G NTN IoT satellite constellation, which now has a total of ten satellites. This concludes OQ Technolow LEO batch-one satellites in the constellation.
The company has been on a fast track to launch many satellites since last year to complete batch one to provide global NB-IoT coverage to many clients and applications. The 5G satellite market has been growing rapidly with many users shifting from proprietary options to standard 3GPP protocols.
OQ is a front runner globally in offering LEO satellite narrowband communication for machines and the IoT. The firm has already provided satellite NTN connectivity to oil and gas companies and is expanding into other verticals such as agriculture and maritime.
“We are very happy of this milestone which was a corner milestone of our 2022 series-A fundraise – putting ten satellites in orbit to have good level of coverage anywhere in the world,” said Omar Qaise, CEO of OQ Technology (www.oqtec.com). “We are ready now to acquire more customers and grow our revenue and prepare the launch of our batch-two satellites. OQ is the fastest growing and largest LEO NTN NB-IoT 3GPP standard satellite constellation.”