Over 15 Rockets With OneWeb Satellites To Be Launched From Russia By 2021 - Source

Over 15 Rockets With OneWeb Satellites to Be Launched From Russia by 2021 - Source

More than 15 Soyuz-2 rockets carrying satellites of UK-based company OneWeb are expected to be launched from Russian spaceports over the next two to three years, a space industry source told Sputnik on Wednesday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th December, 2018) More than 15 Soyuz-2 rockets carrying satellites of UK-based company OneWeb are expected to be launched from Russian spaceports over the next two to three years, a space industry source told Sputnik on Wednesday.

"According to the current plans, four launches of the Soyuz-2 rocket carrying OneWeb satellites will be conducted from the Baikonur space center in 2019, eight launches will be conducted from Baikonur and five from the Vostochny cosmodrome in 2020. Some of them could be conducted in 2021," the source said.

The number of OneWeb satellites that will be launched is yet to be determined due to the company's recent decision to reduce the size of its initial low Earth orbit constellation by 300 satellites to a total of 600.

A space industry source told Sputnik on December 14 that the company's decision to scale back the constellation would not affect the number of Soyuz carrier rockets contracted by the company for the launches.

In June 2015, Russian state space corporation Roscosmos signed a contract with French company Arianespace and OneWeb for 21 commercial launches of 672 satellites on the Soyuz launch vehicles from the Kourou, Baikonur and Vostochny cosmodromes.