UK-based tech company OneWeb on Monday launched 36 communications satellites into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, showed a live broadcast.
OneWeb has been launched satellites Enter orbit as part of your plan to deliver global high-speed Internet access.
Job successful!
We are thrilled to end the year with yet another successful launch with connectivity from all 36 satellites. We have now launched over 60% of our constellation!
Thank you to all our team and distribution partners for a wonderful year!https://t.co/jn9YhCSlJe pic.twitter.com/vue4UBQW4I
— OneWeb (@OneWeb) December 27, 2021
“Launch #12 represents the last of a sequence of eight launches scheduled by OneWeb with launch partners Arianespace in 2021,” the company said on its website. French global launch services company Arianespace, OneWeb and Russia’s space agency roscosmos Everyone broadcast the launch.
Earlier this year, OneWeb said that a launch from Russia’s Far East would allow it to launch everywhere north of 50 degrees latitude.
OneWeb listed the United Kingdom, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, the continental US, the Arctic seas and Canada as regions that should offer full connectivity.
The satellites launched from the Soyuz-2.1B rocket will be separated in stages, the Interfax news agency said.
OneWeb resumed flights last December after emerging from bankruptcy protection with $1 billion (about Rs 7,490 crore) in equity investment from a consortium of the British government and India’s Bharti Enterprises, its new owners.
It has also received investment from Japan. softbank and Eutelsat Communications, and further financing from Bharti. OneWeb has secured a total of $2.4 billion.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
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