OneWeb launch delayed
May 28, 2021
By Chris Forrester
The launch by an Arianespace rocket from Russia of 36 OneWeb satellites has been delayed by 24 hours.
OneWeb has delayed the launch of its next batch of satellites until later today (May 28th). Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said the delay was down to “technical issues” and the replacement of an electrical item on the Soyuz rocket. The launch will take place from Russia’s Far East cosmodrome at Vostochny.
The new launch schedule timings are:
01:38 p.m., in Washington, D.C.,
5:38 p.m. Universal Time (UTC),
6.38 p.m. London time (BST)
7:38 p.m. in Paris,
8:38 p.m., in Moscow,
02:38 a.m., at Tokyo and Vostochny Cosmodrome, on May 29th.
The launch will add 36 Low Earth orbiting satellites to the OneWeb fleet and taking the overall number in orbit to 218. They will be placed into a near Polar orbit at 450 kms height.
The company is focused on scaling the satellite constellation to launch commercial services starting at the end of 2021 to the UK, Alaska, Canada, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland and the Arctic Seas.