The Russian Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle has successfully launched all 34 satellites of the British communications system OneWeb into orbit. It is reported by Roscosmos in its Twitter account.
The “Fregat” upper stage took 3 hours and 45 minutes to transport spacecraft in orbit. During this time, the upper stage made 10 maneuvers, separating nine groups of satellites.
Now the orbital constellation for the global provision of terrestrial consumers with high-speed Internet OneWeb has grown to 288 satellites. All 648 devices are expected to be operational by June 2022.
Earlier it was reported that the state commission, following the meeting at the Baikonur cosmodrome, gave permission to launch the Soyuz-2.1b rocket. The decision was made after the identified malfunction was eliminated.
Prior to this, the launch was postponed twice. On August 19, the command to cancel the launch was given a few seconds before the launch due to a malfunction in the Russian equipment of the launch complex. On August 20, OneWeb asked to postpone the launch due to a software malfunction in the satellite ground control complex.
