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OneWeb launches from Russia’s Vostochny space center to begin in early 2020

In total, OneWeb plans to send about 600 satellites to the near-earth orbit and start their commercial use in 2020

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Russia’s Vostochny space center in the Far East will start launches under the OneWeb program in early 2020, Russia’s Center for Operation of Space Ground-Based Infrastructure (TsENKI) said.

"A contract with OneWeb has been signed. Launches under the OneWeb program are expected to begin early next year," TsENKI chief designer Alexei Bogomolov said in a video, posted by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos on YouTube.

Earlier, Dmitry Loskutov, who heads Roscosmos subsidiary Glavkosmos, told TASS that two OneWeb satellite launches by Russia’s Soyuz rockets are scheduled to take place from the Kourou space center in French Guiana in 2020.

The launch of the first six satellites of the OneWeb project, intended to ensure broadband access to internet for users across the world, took place on February 28. The Soyuz-ST rocket carrier blasted off from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana at 6:37pm local time (12:37am Moscow time). The first two satellites separated from the Fregat upper stage 1 hour 4 minutes after the launch. The remaining four spacecraft were put into the orbit 19 minutes later.

In total, OneWeb plans to send about 600 satellites to the near-earth orbit and start their commercial use in 2020.

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