spacetoday.net: OneWeb launches 36 satellites

Posted: Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 10:57 AM ET (1457 GMT)
Soyuz launch of OneWeb satellites, April 2021 (Glavkosmos)

OneWeb launched another set of 36 satellites Sunday evening as the company accelerates the deployment of its constellation. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia at 6:14 pm EDT (2214 GMT), with the rocket's upper stage deploying the 36 satellites over the next four hours. The launch, managed for OneWeb by Arianespace, pushes the broadband startup closer to an interim goal to expand coverage to north of 50 degrees latitude by June. That coverage goal, which requires launching two more batches of 36 satellites, would enable OneWeb to provide services in northern Europe, Canada, Alaska and the Arctic by the end of the year. A full constellation of 650 satellites is scheduled to be in orbit next year.