Arianespace launches 36 OneWeb satellites from Russia for the U.K.
December 17, 2020
Arianespace, contracted through OneWeb, used a Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage to place 36 new OneWeb satellites into orbit for the British government. The move resumed OneWeb launch operations after the company itself went bankrupt earlier this year.
Liftoff occurred at 07:26:26 EST (12:26:26 UTC) on Friday, 18 December from Site 1S at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia. The mission took nearly 4 hours to complete deployment of the all the satellites.
The Blok-I stage on the “b” variant uses the staged combustion cycle RD-0124, providing improved performance and thus greater payload capability over the gas generator RD-0110 engine used on the “a” variant.