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 2, 2013

“Multisided space” photo exhibition winners were awarded at MAKS-2013 airshow on Saturday for their contribution to cosmonautics and aviation progress, the organizator of international Airshow…

full story
June 17, 2020

Nauka (Science) laboratory module testing conducted in Khrunichev Centre showed good results. Last week space industry specialists successfully finished module body and docking devices pressure…

full story
September 16, 2019

Today, on September 16, 2019, in accordance with the training schedule the specialists of the RSC “Energia” (part of Roscosmos State Corporation) completed a series…

full story
September 5, 2014

On September 4, 2014 main (Alexander Samokutyayev, Roscosmos, Elena Serova, Roscosmos, Barry Wilmore, NASA)  and back-up (Gennady Padalka, Roscosmos, Mikhail Korniyenko, Roscosmos, Scott Kelly, NASA)…

full story
December 4, 2018

The crew members of the “Soyuz MS-11” spacecraft on December 3, 2018 at 22:38 Moscow time, went on board the International Space Station (ISS). Members…

full story
July 13, 2020

20 years ago, on July 12, 2000, the Proton-K launch vehicle launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It launched the Zvezda service module, the third element…

full story
May 13, 2016

According to Khrunichev Centre Deputy Director Alexander Medvedev financing the development of new Phoenix booster with carrying capacity from 9 to 15 tons will start…

full story
June 11, 2013

Angara heavy booster is to be forwarded to Plesetsk cosmodrome by late 2013, – Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin stated. “In…

full story