The only launch in 2020 from the Russian Vostochny cosmodrome is scheduled for December 17. The corresponding date was named by RIA Novosti by a source in the rocket and space industry.
According to him, the launch of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the Fregat upper stage and 36 OneWeb satellites will take place on the condition that the UK promptly delivers these US-made spacecraft to Russia, as well as resolves the relevant financial issues.
In “Glavkosmos”, as the agency writes, did not comment on the information of the source.
In April, the current general director of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, referring to possible cooperation on the Starlink program, which is similar to OneWeb, said that the state corporation would not merge with SpaceX, since the latter is a Pentagon contractor. Andrei Ionin, Corresponding Member of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, commenting on this statement by the official, noted that Roscosmos sells rocket engines to the United States, which are used in rockets that launch American military spacecraft.
In July 2019, the current general director of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, promised, as reported by TASS, that in 2020, “from four to six launches” will be carried out from the Vostochny cosmodrome. In February 2020, the manager announced already four planned launches from this cosmodrome. According to RIA Novosti, in 2020, OneWeb launches from Vostochny were supposed to take place in April, May, June and July. In the same year, in November, the Russian hydrometeorological satellite Meteor-M was to be launched from Vostochny.
