Arianespace and OneWeb have announced resuming launch operations to continue the deployment of the OneWeb constellation. The press service of Arianespace said that a Soyuz rocket will carry to space OneWeb satellites in 2020-2022.
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The first launch will be as soon as December 2020 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome with 36 satellites on board.
"Arianespace will perform 16 more Soyuz launches from three spaceports (Kourou, Baikonur and Vostochny) beginning in late 2020 and continuing through 2022. These launches will enable OneWeb to complete the deployment of its full global constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites by the end of 2022," came in the press release of the company.
“I am delighted that we are back on track to support the deployment of the OneWeb constellation and the company’s mission to bridge the digital divide at a global scale,” said Stéphane Israël, CEO of Arianespace. “Our teams already are working hard to ensure a smooth and quick restart of the launch campaigns by year-end 2020.”
Arianespace has launched 74 OneWeb satellites to date. The initial six were successfully orbited by Soyuz Flight VS21 from French Guiana on February, 2019. In February and March, 2020, Arianespace and its Starsem affiliate successfully launched 68 OneWeb satellites from Baikonur on Soyuz Flights ST27 and ST28.
