Today, on April 4, 2019, the “Soyuz-ST-B” launch vehicle with the “Fregat-MT” upper stage was successfully launched at 20:03 (Moscow time) from the Guiana Space Center with four European telecommunication satellites О3b, manufactured by Thales Alenia Space according to the order of the Luxembourg operator SES.
The launch was carried out within the framework of the Glavkosmos contract with the Arianespace company in close cooperation with the Russian enterprises Progress RSC, NPO Lavochkina and TsENKI.
The separation of two pairs of spacecrafts from the upper stage was completed normally.
O3b satellites are put into orbits and taken for control by the customer.
The O3b satellites joined the large-scale group of the same-name spacecrafts.
Now their number in orbit is 16 satellites, and they provide high-speed mobile and fixed communications to residents.
This launch was the 75th for the “Fregat” upper stage and the 22nd from the Guiana Space Center.
