MEO Satellite Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global MEO Satellite Market will grow from USD 53.82 Billion in 2025 to USD 91.41 Billion by 2031 at a 9.23% CAGR. The Global MEO Satellite Market involves spacecraft positioned between 2,000 and 35,786 kilometers, effectively bridging the gap between Low Earth Orbit and Geostationary systems. These satellites are essential for global navigation networks like GPS and Galileo, as well as for high-throughput data communications that require a balance of broad coverage and reduced latency. The market is primarily driven by the increasing need for carrier-grade connectivity in maritime and aviation sectors, the demand for secure defense navigation capabilities, and the expansion of cellular backhaul services to support global 5G network integration.

Despite these growth drivers, the sector faces significant challenges from the rapid rise of Low Earth Orbit mega-constellations. The Satellite Industry Association reported a 29 percent increase in satellite broadband revenue in 2024, indicating surging demand for non-geostationary services but also highlighting fierce competition. The immense scale and lower latency profiles of LEO networks pose a threat to MEO operators by potentially saturating the market, compelling incumbents to aggressively differentiate their capacity and service level agreements to maintain market share.

Market Drivers

The surging demand for high-throughput, low-latency connectivity serves as a major catalyst for the market, as Medium Earth Orbit constellations are uniquely capable of delivering fiber-like performance to remote regions. Unlike Geostationary systems, MEO satellites offer significantly lower latency, making them critical for bandwidth-intensive applications such as cruise lines, mobile network backhaul, and enterprise cloud connectivity. This commercial momentum is reflected in substantial financial commitments; for instance, Connectivity Business News reported in January 2025 that the gross backlog for SES-17 and O3b mPOWER systems exceeded $1 billion, underscoring the robust appetite for these specialized capabilities.

Concurrently, the modernization of global navigation systems and rising defense requirements for secure tactical communications are reshaping the strategic landscape. Governments are actively upgrading MEO-based positioning, navigation, and timing infrastructures to ensure resilience against jamming and spoofing threats. According to the Space Foundation’s "The Space Report 2024 Q4" from January 2025, military spacecraft deployments rose by 86 percent in 2024, indicating a shift toward diversified orbital architectures. The success of these efforts is further validated by the EU Agency for the Space Programme, which reported in September 2025 that the Galileo Open Service achieved a 95 percent satisfaction rate, justifying continued investment in medium-orbit navigation.

Market Challenges

A primary obstacle to the expansion of the Medium Earth Orbit sector is the rapid proliferation of Low Earth Orbit mega-constellations, which operate at significantly lower altitudes to deliver connectivity with reduced latency. This technical advantage makes LEO architectures particularly attractive for latency-sensitive applications, effectively eroding the traditional user base of MEO operators. Consequently, MEO providers face intensifying pressure to justify their service costs and performance metrics against a backdrop of aggressive LEO network scaling that threatens to overshadow the value proposition of medium-orbit assets.

This competitive disparity is confirmed by recent infrastructure deployment trends that heavily favor lower altitudes. Data from the Satellite Industry Association reveals that the total number of operational satellites exceeded 9,600 in 2024, with the vast majority of new deployments belonging to Low Earth Orbit communications networks rather than Medium Earth Orbit platforms. This aggressive accumulation of LEO assets saturates the available market for non-geostationary services, making it increasingly difficult for MEO operators to secure market visibility and attract the necessary investment capital for fleet expansion.

Market Trends

Operators are fundamentally restructuring their fleets by transitioning from static architectures to fully flexible, software-defined digital payloads that allow for real-time reconfiguration of beam coverage, frequency, and power. This technological evolution enables service providers to dynamically match capacity with fluctuating geographic demand without the need to launch new hardware. The operational impact of this shift is illustrated by the rapid adoption of next-generation systems like O3b mPOWER; TelcoNews Asia reported in December 2024 that this advanced constellation was already supporting over 15 million end users as of April 2024, validating the commercial scalability of reconfigurable assets.

Simultaneously, governments are driving the emergence of sovereign MEO capabilities to secure guaranteed, resilient throughput for national defense and critical infrastructure. Unlike commercial-only models, this trend involves public sectors integrating dedicated virtual networks or proprietary beams within multi-orbit constellations to ensure strategic autonomy and protection against interception. This prioritization of state-controlled assets is exemplified by initiatives such as IRIS²; according to a SpaceRISE press release in December 2024, the project is backed by €6.5 billion in public funding to deploy a sovereign-grade network utilizing both Low and Medium Earth Orbit assets.

Key Players Profiled in the MEO Satellite Market

• China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
• Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev
• Lockheed Martin Corporation
• OHB SE
• Thales S.A.
• The Boeing Company
• Airbus SE
• Northrop Grumman Corporation
• Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Report Scope

In this report, the Global MEO Satellite Market has been segmented into the following categories:

MEO Satellite Market, by Application:

• Communication
• Earth Observation
• Navigation
• Others

MEO Satellite Market, by Satellite Mass:

• 100-500kg
• 500-1000kg
• above 1000kg

MEO Satellite Market, by End User:

• Commercial
• Military & Government

MEO Satellite Market, by Propulsion Tech:

• Electric
• Gas-based
• Liquid Fuel

MEO Satellite Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global MEO Satellite Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

This product will be delivered within 1-3 business days.