Next launch of British OneWeb satellites scheduled for Dec. 27 — Roscosmos chief

The next launch of British OneWeb communications satellites is scheduled for December 27, Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said at the EAEU business forum ‘Space Integration’ on Friday.

"The launch of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket with OneWeb satellites is planned for December 27," Rogozin said.

A source in the Russian space industry earlier told TASS that the launch of OneWeb satellites was scheduled for December 27 from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan. Next year, most of OneWeb launches would also be carried out from the Baikonur cosmodrome, he specified.

This year, Roscosmos has carried out most of OneWeb satellite launches (five) from the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East. Another two launches were conducted from the Baikonur space center.

OneWeb’s renewed agreement with the French Arianespace stipulates the lift-off of 16 Russian Soyuz carrier rockets from the Kourou, Vostochny and Baikonur spaceports in 2020-2022. Each launch allows orbiting 34-36 OneWeb satellites. Roscosmos Chief Rogozin told reporters on April 9 that the OneWeb first generation cluster would be established in late 2022 - early 2023.

British OneWeb satellites are designed to create a space-based communications system to provide high-speed Internet access in any locality worldwide.

Quelle: TASS