A successful launch of 34 OneWeb satellites aboard the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage was executed on Tuesday, September 14, at 18:07 UTC (21:07 Moscow time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of the spacecraft was carried out under the contracts of Glavkosmos (a subsidiary of Roscosmos) with the European launch services provider Arianespace (operates the launch of OneWeb spacecraft with the use of the Soyuz launch vehicle) and the company Starsem.

The launch was executed by the joint team, which combined the specialists of Roscosmos enterprises – Progress Space Rocket Center, Lavochkin Association, TsENKI, Russian Space Systems, Glavkosmos and those of the foreign customers.

The separation of the Fregat upper stage from the third stage was nominal. During almost three hours in accordance with the flight sequence, the spacecraft were sequentially separated from the upper stage and injected into target orbits. This mission was the hundredth for the Fregat upper stage.

This launch became the tenth under the OneWeb program and the fourth performed from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The foreign customers of Glavkosmos have confirmed that the company has fully complied with its contractual obligations.

OneWeb low Earth orbit satellites are designed to provide consumers on the ground with high-speed Internet. Today’s launch brought the number of OneWeb satellites in orbit to 322 and the company is planning to launch hundreds more.