MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2019) Delegations of French Arianespace commercial launch service provider and UK OneWeb company, creating a constellation of satellites to provide global internet access, will hold talks with subsidiaries of Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos on prospects of further launches of Soyuz carrier rockets, a press service of Roscosmos' launch service provider Glavkosmos told Sputink.
"On April 8, the Arianespace delegation will arrive in Russia to discuss technical aspects of a further OneWeb satellites launch campaign with experts from Glavkosmos, Rocket Space Center [RSC] Progress, the Lavochkin Research and Production Association and Center for Operation of Space Ground Based Infrastructure," the press service said.
A schedule of carrier rockets launches from Russian cosmodromes is expected to be discussed during the talks, a source in the aerospace industry told Sputnik.
Roscosmos signed contracts with Arianespace and OneWeb in June 2015 for carrying out a total of 21 commercial launches to bring 672 satellites to space atop the Soyuz rockets from Kourou, the Baikonur and the Vostochny space centers.
OneWeb plans to create a constellation of satellites that will provide broadband Internet access to users around the world fully covering the Earth's surface. OneWeb's investors include Virgin Group, SoftBank, Airbus, Qualcomm and Coca-Cola.
Last year, according to media reports, it turned out that the company had problems with licensing necessary frequencies in Russia, facing the opposition of the Federal Security Service and telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor. Despite this, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said that the cooperation of his corporation with OneWeb would continue.
RSC Progress chief Dmitry Baranov said that Russia had received almost $1 billion in advance for launching OneWeb satellites atop Soyuz launch vehicles, so there is no economic reason to refuse to launch them.
