An Arianespace Soyuz rocket has successfully placed 34 satellites into orbit for OneWeb.

In a complex mission, the Soyuz lifted off 02.42 am (local time) Friday morning from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and shortly afterwards started releasing its spacecraft in batches of 4 at 20-minute intervals.

The satellites were deployed at a height of 450 kms.  They will use their on-board electric thrusters to raise their orbits to their designated 1200 kms heights.

The next batch of 34 satellites will be launched in March.

OneWeb will use around 17 or 18 Soyuz rockets in its overall plan to place 588 satellites. OneWeb says it will then decide whether to launch a final batch of 60 spare satellites in order to complete the mega-constellation.

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