A new batch of 36 OneWeb satellites arrives at Baikonur
BAIKONUR, February 15. – A new batch of 36 OneWeb satellites was delivered to the airport Krainiy by an An-124-100 aircraft on Monday evening. The specialists of the Space Center Yuzhny (a branch of TsENKI, part of Roscosmos) transported the satellites to the cosmodrome. The joint technical team that combines the specialists of Roscosmos enterprises - Progress Space Rocket Center, Lavochkin Association, TsENKI, Russian Space Systems, Glavkosmos and those of the foreign customers, started preparing the spacecraft for the launch on board the Soyuz-2.1 b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage.
These activities are carried out under the contracts of Glavkosmos (a subsidiary of Roscosmos) with Arianespace, which operates launches of OneWeb spacecraft with the use of the Soyuz launch vehicles, and the company Starsem.
The launch operated by the European launch services provider Arianespace is scheduled for 22:41 UTC, March 5, 2022 (01:41 Moscow time, March 4) and it will be the fourteenth launch for OneWeb, the thirteen previous ones were carried out with the use of the Russian Soyuz launch vehicles from the Baikonur and Vostochny Cosmodromes and Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
To date, the fleet of OneWeb satellites in the low Earth orbit consists of 428 spacecraft. The upcoming launch should bring the number of OneWeb spacecraft in orbit to 464.
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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 to manage complex international projects. During its more than thirty-five year history, the company has successfully fulfilled over 140 international contracts, including the launch of more than 170 spacecraft as a secondary payload.
Since May 2021, Glavkosmos has been the official operator of Roscosmos trademarks.
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. ROSCOSMOS is also vested with authority to develop international cooperation in space and establish the appropriate environment for applying achievements in space domain for the social and economic development in Russia.