Posted: Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 11:56 AM ET (1556 GMT)

OneWeb launched three dozen satellites Wednesday night as it moves closer to beginning service in polar regions later this year. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia at 10:47 pm EDT (02467 GMT Thursday), and its Fregat upper stage completed the deployment of 36 OneWeb satellites nearly four hours later. OneWeb said this launch was the second in a series of five launches that will deploy enough satellites to allow the company to provide broadband services north of 50 degrees latitude later this year. The full 648-satellite constellation will provide global service in 2022.