On May 21, 2021 the specialists of Roscosmos subsidiaries – the Vostochny Space Center (a branch of the Center for Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Facilities) and the Progress Rocket and Space Center have completed the general assembly of the Soyuz-2.1b space rocket in the assembly and testing facility of the Vostochny Cosmodrome within the mission No. 47.
In accordance with the prelaunch work schedule, the ascent unit (the Fregat upper stage and 36 OneWeb spacecraft under the fairing) were docked with the third stage (the side blocks, and the second stage assembly). After the docking, the electrical connections were assembled and the temperature control pipelines were installed. Currently, the space rocket is installed on the transport and installation unit before being transported to the launch site.
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and a new batch of 36 OneWeb spacecraft is scheduled for May 27, 2021 and will become the fourth fully commercial from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The launch will take place as part of the contracts between Glavkosmos (a subsidiary of Roscosmos) with the European launch services provider Arianespace (operator of OneWeb spacecraft launches using the Soyuz launch vehicle) and Starsem.
