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Russia launches OneWeb satellites, despite coronavirus pandemic

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket has taken 34 OneWeb satellites to orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, increasing the constellation to 74 units

MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. UK-made OneWeb satellites have been successfully launched into orbit, thanks to efforts of Russian and foreign companies, who made it possible, despite difficult epidemiologic situation in the world, Glavkosmos CEO Dmitry Loskutov said Saturday.

On March 21, the launch has been conducted within the agreement between Glavkosmos and France’s Arianespace. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket has taken 34 OneWeb satellites to orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, increasing the constellation to 74 units.

The first six satellites have been launches from the Kourou Space Center via Soyuz-ST missile on February 28, 2019. On February 7, 2020, 34 more satellites have been launched. Later in 2020, the UK-made satellites will be launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome for the first time.

Overall, OneWeb seeks to deploy about 600 satellites and begin their commercial use in 2020.

In late December 2019, a pneumonia outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus was reported in central China’s city of Wuhan, an economic and industrial megacity with a population of 12 million. After the coronavirus denoted as COVID-19 broke out of China’s Hubei province, it spread across China and then throughout the world, affecting more than 150 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) characterized the outbreak as a pandemic. According to the latest reports, over 270,000 cases of patients infected with the new coronavirus have been confirmed up to now. The virus’ death toll has surged to over 11,000.

The epidemic caused all operations to stop at the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana. The Center underscored that such measures seek to protect the health of the employees and to provide safety, required for preparations for future launches. A source told TASS that Russian staffers continued to work at the Kourou Center even after coronavirus infection was discovered in the neighboring settlement.

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