OneWeb batch arrives in Russia
June 14, 2021
By Chris Forrester
OneWeb’s next batch of low Earth orbiting satellites have arrived at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East. They will now be prepared for launch by Arianespace’s team on site who work with Starsem for integration onto a Soyuz 2.1b rocket.
The likely date for launch, subject to the usual weather and technical checks, is July 1st.
There are already 218 OneWeb satellites in orbit and this next group of 36 will be released from the Soyuz rocket in 4 separate batches which will then be raised to their correct orbital positions.
There’s another launch planned for around August 2nd and when that batch of 36 is orbited the fleet will total 290 craft.