OneWeb to launch satellites again after agreement with SpaceX

Internet satellite company OneWeb will launch satellites again after signing an agreement with SpaceX. The first launch is yet to take place this year. OneWeb was unable to launch new satellites with Russia’s Soyuz rocket after a demand from Roskosmos.

OneWeb writes in a press release that it has reached an agreement with SpaceX that will allow it to continue building its Internet satellite network. The first flight aboard a SpaceX rocket is yet to take place this year. OneWeb does not say exactly which agreements have been made with SpaceX; the terms of the agreement are confidential.

The satellite company was forced to suspend plans to launch new satellites in early March after the Russian space agency Roskosmos demanded that the UK give up all shares in OneWeb before the company could again send satellites into space aboard a Soyuz. -rocket ship. The UK government has been a shareholder in OneWeb since the company went bankrupt in 2020. The demand came in addition to a demand from Roskosmos that the satellites should not be used for military purposes. Director Dmitry Rogozin was afraid of this, after Roskosmos received information that OneWeb had started negotiations with an American company to provide information and communication services. The satellites were already ready for launch at the Baykonur Cosmodrome.

All OneWeb launches so far have been done with those Soyuz launchers. With this, the company managed to get 428 of the intended 648 satellites into low Earth orbit. The satellites are intended to provide internet, similar to SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. With the help of SpaceX, OneWeb CEO Neil Masterson expects the company to be able to phase out its entire fleet.

OneWeb satellite. Image: OneWeb