OneWeb, the London-based satellite internet services company backed by Indian conglomerate Bharti Enterprises and the UK government, yesterday announced the successful deployment of 40 of its SpaceX-launched satellites. This is OneWeb’s 16th launch to date and the company only needs two more launches to complete its first-generation constellation.
A SpaceX rocket lifted off with rockets from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 11:50 p.m. ET on January 9. (10:20 a.m. IST on January 10). The rockets were deployed into orbit in three phases over a period of one hour and 35 minutes and OneWeb was able to confirm signal acquisition on all 40 satellites.
With launch, OneWeb has a total of 542 operational satellites in orbit (two satellites out of order), more than 83% of the company’s planned total of 648 satellites. Besides SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, OneWeb satellites have also been launched aboard Russia’s Soyuz launch vehicle and ISRO’s LVM-3 rocket.
Interestingly, OneWeb is also a direct competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink service. Once its satellite network is fully deployed, OneWeb plans to deliver high-speed, low-latency satellite Internet services using low-earth satellite constellations, just like Starlink.
Source : https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiX2h0dHBzOi8vaW5kaWFuZXhwcmVzcy5jb20vYXJ0aWNsZS90ZWNobm9sb2d5L2JoYXJ0aS1vbmV3ZWItc3BhY2V4LTQwLXNhdGVsbGl0ZXMtbGF1bmNoLTgzNzQ4ODAv0gFkaHR0cHM6Ly9pbmRpYW5leHByZXNzLmNvbS9hcnRpY2xlL3RlY2hub2xvZ3kvYmhhcnRpLW9uZXdlYi1zcGFjZXgtNDAtc2F0ZWxsaXRlcy1sYXVuY2gtODM3NDg4MC9saXRlLw?oc=5
