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:
February 24, 2015

Last week main and back-up crews of ISS-43/44 mission started passing exams. The main crew comprises Roscosmos cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Korniyenko and NASA…

full story
Progress MS-20
June 2, 2022

This morning, integrated launch vehicle (ILV) Soyuz-2.1а with cargo transportation spacecraft Progress МS-20 was rolled out from the integration and test facility of the launch…

full story
November 20, 2018

In 2018, it is 20th anniversary of the most significant international space projects, the largest manned artificial satellite of the Earth – the International Space…

full story
March 6, 2020

Ahead of the ISS-63 crews are complex examination exercises. Before cosmonauts and astronauts need to undergo a typical flight day training. This is a “test…

full story
May 27, 2013

The launch of Angara light rocket from Vostochny cosmodrome will take place in 2015, – vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said at the meeting with…

full story
December 13, 2019

Members of the ISS-63 main crew – Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolay Tikhonov and Andrey Babkin performed a training on the “Exit-2” simulator, using a new cyclogram….

full story
October 25, 2019

For the first time in 12 years cosmonauts and astronauts trained on actions after landing on a water surface on the Black Sea at the…

full story
August 6, 2013

Launches of light-class Rokot carrier rockets will resume in the first half of September following a nine-month suspension due to attempts to fix a glitch…

full story