A successful launch of 36 OneWeb satellites aboard the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage was executed on Thursday from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The launch was carried out under the contract between Glavkosmos (part of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos) and the European launch services provider Arianespace and the Russian-French company Starsem in close cooperation with other Roscosmos enterprises: Progress Space Rocket Center, Lavochkin Association, and TsENKI.
The separation of the Fregat upper stage from the third stage was nominal. During nearly three hours in accordance with the flight sequence the spacecraft were separated from the upper stage nine times and put into target orbits.
The foreign partners of Glavkosmos have confirmed that the company has fulfilled its contractual obligations. All the satellites have been launched into target orbits.
OneWeb low Earth orbit satellites are designed to provide consumers on the ground with high-speed Internet directly through satellite communications. Today’s launch brought the number of OneWeb spacecraft in orbit to 146 and the company is planning to launch hundreds more.
