On the 27th Falcon 9 launch of 2022, SpaceX launched the SES-22 communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. Launch took place at 5:04 PM EDT (21:04 UTC) on Wednesday, June 29. Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station opened a window of two hours and 10 minutes for the launch.

Falcon 9, booster 1073, launched on an eastbound trajectory in a flight path typical of satellites launched from Florida to a geostationary transfer orbit. The first stage of the mission landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic, while the fairing halves will be retrieved by the support ship Doug.

Booster 1073 was on its second flight. It flew its first time from Launch Complex 40 on May 14. 53 satellites were launched by booster 1073 during the Starlink Group 4-15 mission. The same booster also landed on the drone ship Just Read The Instructions. A turnaround time of 46 days was the turnaround time for B1073 between Starlink Group 4-15 and SES-22.

SES-22 was injected into its geostationary transfer orbit by the second stage and released, which will coast to its apogee and then fire its own engines to circularize its orbit. In a slot at 135 degrees West, the spacecraft will travel over the equator to provide direct-to-home C-band telecommunications services for the United States.

The 3.5-ton SES-22 satellite was initially built as a ground spare as part of a two-satellite contract with Thales Alenia Space. Under this contract, SES-22 and SES-23 satellites will be based on the Spacebus 4000 B2 bus, which has been successfully utilized by satellites like Bangabandhu-1, Nilesat 301, Telkom 3S, and others.

Several years ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required that satellite operators clear the 280 MHz range of C-band spectrum, plus a 20 MHz guard band, for 5G mobile services in the contiguous United States.

Mobile operators have been allocated a portion of the C-band spectrum as early as December, while satellite operators have an accelerated relocation deadline of December 5, 2023.

SES, based in Luxembourg, initially purchased four communications satellites from two US companies in June 2020 in order to meet the FCC deadline for satellite operators. Northrop Grumman is building SES-18 and SES-19 satellites based on the Geostar-3 platform, while Boeing is building SES-20 and SES-21 satellites based on its 702SP all-electric satellite.

SES ordered the SES-22 and SES-23 satellite platforms from Thales Alenia Space two months later as backups, in case the other satellites failed to launch or other issues prevented them from meeting the FCC's C-band spectrum clearance deadline.

The launch of SES-22 was delayed by Northrop Grumman because of COVID-19-related supply chain constraints and component reliability issues, but SES-18 had successfully launched. A number of SES satellites will help the company move its services to a different portion of the C-band.

A Boeing-built satellite, SES-22, is scheduled to be launched on an Atlas V no earlier than this coming August along with its twin satellite, SES-21. Northrop Grumman satellites (SES-18 and 19) are currently scheduled to fly no earlier than this October, though a SES quarterly report states, 'there is a significant risk the satellites will not be commercially available by the end of 2022.'.”

In order to build and ship the SES-22 satellite to the launch site, SES and Thales Alenia Space had to overcome the effects of a pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Rather than arrange heavy lift cargo flights, Nilesat 301 and SES-22 were transported to Port Canaveral on the Dutch cargo ship Celtic.

The launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) of SES-22 is expected to take approximately 10 days, and operations are scheduled to begin in August. The SES satellite will enable it to comply with the FCC's requirement to clear lower 300 MHz of the C-band. Satellite 22 and its sister satellites will move the company's services to the upper 200 MHz of C-band.

Spacebus 4000 B2 satellite SES-22 is the 11th to be built, while SES-23 is the 12th. In addition to being an extra satellite for contingencies, SES-23 is also a spare satellite in case SES might miss the December 2023 C-band clearance deadline.

The geostationary satellite launch market had been in decline for most of the last decade, but there was an increase in orders for new satellites in 2019 and 2020. Besides the six SES satellites, Intelsat and SES need new spacecraft to migrate from the lower portion of the C-band to the upper portion for use by 5G mobile networks.