UK Satellites OneWeb, Launched by Soyuz-2 From Vostochny, Put Into Orbit - Roscosmos
Thirty-six communication satellites of UK company OneWeb, which were launched on Friday by the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage from the Vostochny cosmodrome, were put into orbit, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th December, 2020) Thirty-six communication satellites of UK company OneWeb, which were launched on Friday by the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage from the Vostochny cosmodrome, were put into orbit, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said.
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b vehicle with the Fregat booster and OneWeb satellites took place at 12:26 GMT from the 1C site of the Vostochny spaceport. Fregat with satellties separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle at 12.35 GMT. The separation of satellites took place in nine stages in groups of four.
"All 36 OneWeb spacecraft have been launched by the Fregat upper stage into their calculated orbits.
The mission has been completed successfully," Rogozin wrote on Twitter.
It was the 16th launch of a Russian space launch vehicle in 2020, the sixth from Vostochny since 2016, and the first fully commercial launch from this launch site.
The last Russian rocket launch this year is scheduled for December 28 from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. The Soyuz-ST-A rocket with the Fregat-M upper stage is to launch French military satellite for optical-electronic eart observation CSO-2 into orbit.