A new batch of 36 OneWeb satellites was delivered to Ignatievo airport (Blagoveshchensk) by an An-124-100 aircraft on Thursday. The specialists of the Space Center Vostochny (a branch of TsENKI, part of Roscosmos) transported the satellites to the cosmodrome, where the joint technical team started preparing the satellites for the upcoming launch on board the Soyuz-2.1 b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage.
These activities are carried out under the contracts of Glavkosmos (a subsidiary of Roscosmos) with the European launch services provider Arianespace (the company operates launches of OneWeb spacecraft with the use of the Soyuz launch vehicle), and the company Starsem. The foreign customers work side by side with the representatives of Progress Space Rocket Center, Lavochkin Association, TsENKI and Glavkosmos (enterprises of Roscosmos).
To date, the fleet of OneWeb satellites in the low Earth orbit consists of 218 spacecraft, and hundreds more are to be launched. The upcoming launch should bring the number of OneWeb spacecraft in orbit to 254. OneWeb low Earth orbit satellites are designed to provide consumers on the ground with high-speed Internet.
