You can notice the location of the satellites inside the head fairing. OneWeb Source
OneWeb has delayed the start of its next month launch campaign to further test its small broadband satellites.
“We are working hard to get ready for the launch, and therefore we need several additional weeks to conduct additional satellite tests, which will be sent to the launch pad in December for subsequent launch,” the OneWeb statement for SpaceNews said. “We plan our next launch in mid-late January and we will adhere to the schedule with monthly launches after that, in order to start serving customers in the Arctic at the end of 2020 and provide global coverage in 2021 year. "
OneWeb spokeswoman Katie Dowd said the company will launch at least 30 satellites with each Soyuz mission. She refused to specify exactly how much she would start on the January mission.
OneWeb launched its first six satellites in February 2019 on the Soyuz launch vehicle with the help of the European company Arianespace. This launch was delayed for more than six months, mainly for additional satellite tests.
Shortly after launching the satellites, OneWeb attracted $ 1.25 billion in new investments, resulting in a total of $ 3.4 billion. New investors, such as SoftBank, Grupo Salinas, Qualcomm, and the government of Rwanda, have joined the Virgin Group, Coca-Cola, and Airbus to finance this project.
Arianespace, the main launch provider for OneWeb, carried out a February launch from Kourou, French Guiana, but most of the remaining 20 OneWeb launches are planned from the Russian Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan to avoid conflicts with upcoming Arianespace launches in French Guiana.
OneWeb said it intends to launch on Soyuz every three weeks, starting with its first launch from Baikonur.
Adrian Shtekel, CEO of OneWeb, emphasized the urgency of launching the entire group. “It is useless to place 35 satellites on the PH and wait six months to launch another 35,” he said. “We need to put them into orbit as quickly as possible.”
The appearance and characteristics of the OneWeb satellite. OneWeb source.
OneWeb’s satellite manufacturing plant on the Florida coast plans to produce up to three 150-kilogram spacecraft per day from the assembly line. Airbus Defense and Space is the main contractor for the creation of the OneWeb satellite constellation, using mass production methods such as automation and robotics used in the company's aerospace business for spacecraft.
The first batch of 10 satellites was assembled almost by hand. OneWeb source.
SpaceX, which launched its first 60 low-orbit Starlink satellites in May and another batch of 60 satellites in November this year (this currently makes SpaceX the company with the most satellites), plans to offer Internet services next year. In December, the next launch of Falcon 9 with 60 satellites on board is scheduled.
According to Shtekel, the initial constellation OneWeb will consist of 650 satellites, but in the long-term plans, their number will be about 2000 satellites. He added that launch prices are likely to continue to decline over the next two to ten years, which will help maintain the number of satellites in orbit and increase them.
In addition to the 20 Soyuz launches, OneWeb agreed to launch 30 satellites in the first launch of the new Ariane 6 rocket from Arianespace in the second half of 2020.
OneWeb signed a contract for 39 missions on Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne in 2015, but later canceled all but four in 2018, which triggered a lawsuit by Virgin Orbit.
OneWeb, along with its largest investor Softbank, entered into a legal dispute with Intelsat, the operator of geostationary satellites, with which they wanted to merge in 2017.
OneWeb will soon ask the New York Supreme Court to dismiss the Intelsat lawsuit, according to a statement dated October 5, but Intelsat claims that OneWeb and Softbank violated contracts and conspired to steal confidential and private information during a merger attempt.
This year, 3 more launches of Soyuz launch vehicle are planned:
- On November 25, Union 2.1v will launch in the interests of the Ministry of Defense
- On December 1, cargo Progress will leave for the ISS for the 74th time
- December 10 Soyuz 2.1b will launch another Glonass-M
The test launch of the Angara-A5 heavy rocket from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region was postponed from the end of 2019 to 2020, and the deadlines for the first Angara-A5M launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome are preserved - this is 2023.
The decision to start work on the Angara family was made in January 1995. To date, rockets of this family have made only two flights (in light and heavy versions in 2014), although according to the initial plan, the first launch of the Angara was supposed to happen in 2005.
A source