36 OneWeb satellites arrive at the Vostochny Spaceport
MOSCOW, February 26. – The 36 spacecraft of OneWeb - the company jointly owned by the UK Government and Bharti Global - arrived at Ignatievo airport (Blagoveshchensk) by an An-124-100 aircraft on Friday. The specialists of the Vostochny Space Center (a branch of TsENKI, part of Roscosmos) transported all 36 satellites to the Spaceport. On February 27, begins the preparation of the spacecraft for the launch scheduled for March 25 aboard the Soyuz-2.1 b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage.
Glavkosmos (a subsidiary of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos) provides the launch of the OneWeb spacecraft using the Soyuz launch vehicle under the contracts with the European launch services provider Arianespace and the Russian-French company Starsem in close cooperation with other Roscosmos enterprises: Progress Space Rocket Center, Lavochkin Association, and TsENKI.
Today the OneWeb low Earth orbit fleet of satellites has 110 spacecraft, and hundreds of others are to be launched. The upcoming launch should bring the number of OneWeb spacecraft in orbit to 146.
OneWeb low Earth orbit spacecraft are designed to provide consumers on the ground with high-speed Internet directly through satellite communications.
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Glavkosmos, JSC is a subsidiary of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos. The main task of the company is to promote the achievements of the Russian rocket and space industry to world markets and manage complex international projects. During its thirty-five year history, the company has successfully fulfilled over 140 international contracts, including the launch of more than 150 spacecraft as a secondary payload.
ROSCOSMOS is a State Corporation established in August 2015 to carry out a comprehensive reform of the Russian rocket and space industry. ROSCOSMOS ensures the implementation of the state policy in space activities and its normative and legal regulations, as well as places orders for the design, production and supply of space equipment and space infrastructure. Its functions also include the development of international space cooperation, as well as the establishing of environment for application of space domain achievements for the social and economic development in Russia.