OneWeb loses a satellite at 1200km
November 17, 2021
By Chris Forrester
OneWeb says it has suffered a failure of one of its broadband satellites. The craft, which orbits at 1200km, was said by OneWeb to be one of a batch launched early last year and the failure is blamed on a software problem.
Other satellites in the fleet were updated from the ground and the malfunction cured. The failed satellite will be de-orbited.
The news emerged within OneWeb’s Financial Statement which highlighted its 11 launches over the past year. It says it now has market access rights in 38 countries.
“At October 2021, OneWeb has signed distribution agreements with a number of key partners in Alaska and Canada, and is in conversation with a number of further potential global partners, ahead of commercial service launch by end of calendar year 2021,” stated the financial report.
OneWeb says that it will have launched all into initial fleet of 650 satellites by late 2022 (it has 358 satellites in orbit at the moment).
OneWeb also revealed that it had paid $49.3 million in assorted fees to the bankers and lawyers who advised it on its input of investment cash from the UK government and India’s Bharti Global which kick-started the rescue of the company from bankruptcy.
The sale/purchase agreement “required the Company to fund the selling costs of the former shareholders of OneWeb Communications”, said OneWeb.
At the moment OneWeb is in the development and launch phase and is not recovering cash from subscriptions/user access. This means that the business made a loss last year of $58.3 million in its 12-months of trading to March 31st.