MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th May, 2021) The next launch of the United Kingdom's OneWeb communication satellites on board the Russian Soyuz carrier rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome is planned for the summer, Russian state space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday.
In April, a source in the space industry told Sputnik that the next launch was scheduled for August 2.
"The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and 34 OneWeb satellites is scheduled for this summer from the Vostok launch pad of the Baikonur cosmodrome," Roscosmos said in a statement.
In June 2015, French launch service provider Arianespace and UK communication company OneWeb signed a contract on launching 21 Soyuz rockets from Baikonur, Vostochny and Kourou spaceports. Last September, the number of rockets for the launch was reduced to 19. Six rockets with 182 satellites in total have been launched so far. The last launch took place on April 26.
The UK's OneWeb aims at providing commercial satellite communications services in late 2021. By the end of next year, the company plans to ensure broadband internet access to users around the globe by fully covering the Earth's surface with a 648-satellite constellation.
