April 22, 2021
Categories: Russia

The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage and 36 OneWeb communications satellites was rolled out from the Assembly and Test Facility. The launch vehicle was installed on the launch pad of the Vostochny Сosmodrome, the launch is scheduled for Monday, April 25, at 22:14 UTC (April 26, at 01:14 Moscow time).

Pre-launch activities are carried out under the contracts of Glavkosmos (a subsidiary of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos) with the European launch services provider Arianespace, which provides and operates the launch of OneWeb spacecraft with the use of the Soyuz launch vehicle, and the Russian-French company Starsem. The work with the foreign customers is carried out by the representatives of other Roscosmos enterprises: Progress Space Rocket Center, Lavochkin Association, and TsENKI.

Now, the specialists at the spaceport are performing the final technical operations. The pre-launch tests of Soyuz-2.1b systems are being conducted, and the interfaces between the on-board instruments and ground equipment are being checked. This launch will be the third fully commercial launch of spacecraft from Vostochny. The previous two launches were also for the OneWeb mission.

Now, the fleet of the OneWeb satellites in the low Earth orbit amounts to 146 spacecraft, and hundreds more are to be launched. The upcoming launch should bring the number of OneWeb spacecraft in orbit to 182. OneWeb low Earth orbit satellites are designed to provide consumers on the ground with high-speed Internet.

More from this category:
September 10, 2018

Before proceeding with the examination of complex training in the GCTC, the crews pass a “test exam” for knowledge of the Russian segment of the…

full story
August 28, 2014

State Commission meeting held on August 27, 2014 studied the results of scientific experiments conducted onboard Foton-M №4 space device. By that date scientific program…

full story
November 18, 2018

The “Progress MS-10” cargo spaceship on November 18, 2018 successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS). The ship was docked to the docking station…

full story
October 4, 2013

RIA Novosti – A top Russian scientist said Friday that an experiment that saw dozens of animals blasted into orbit on a satellite has offered…

full story
March 24, 2020

Today at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center was a farewell ceremony of the crew of the ISS-63 to Baikonur. In a few weeks, Roscosmos cosmonauts…

full story
November 30, 2015

Today GCTC officially saw off ISS-46/47 prime (Yuri Malenchenko,  Roscosmos, Timothy Kopra, NASA, and Timothy Peake, ESA) and back-up (Anatoly Ivanishin, Roscosmos, Takuya Onishi, JAXA,…

full story
January 18, 2019

The “Proton-M” launch vehicle is ready for shipment to the Baikonur cosmodrome for preparation under the “Spectrum-RG” program. Dispatch of launch devices including “Proton-M” launch…

full story
June 18, 2014

Preparation for the launch of Soyuz-ST-B with O3b space device  are under way at Soyuz launching pad in Guiana space centre (French Guiana). At the…

full story