Another 36 OneWeb satellites went into space on 1 July, deployed by Arianespace and its Starsem affiliate at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome. The Soyuz Flight ST33 brings the full OneWeb fleet in orbit to 254 and marks the completion of the company’s ‘Five to 50’ ambition. The programme seeks to bring enough satellites into orbit for connectivity services to the 50th parallel and above by the end of this year, to cover Canada, the UK, Northern Europe, Alaska and the world’s Arctic regions.
Arianespace said it plans to perform 11 more Soyuz launches for OneWeb through this year and the next. The launches will enable OneWeb to complete the deployment of its full global constellation of low Earth orbit satellites before the end of 2022 and make its service available worldwide.
OneWeb said service demonstrations will begin this summer in a number of key locations, including Alaska and Canada, as the company prepares for commercial service over the next six months. The provider said it already has distribution partnerships across several industries and businesses including with BT, Rock Network, AST Group, PDI and Alaska Communications among others.
