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Six launches under OneWeb program from Vostochny spaceport planned for 2021

Four launches under this program were initially scheduled for this year but the production of spacecraft was suspended amid the novel coronavirus pandemic

VOSTOCHNY SPACEPORT /Amur region/, December 18. /TASS/. Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos plans to make about six launches of the British OneWeb communications satellites from the Vostochny spaceport in the Far Eastern Amur region, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin told journalists on Friday.

"Vostochny’s workload next year will be much bigger: there will be OneWeb launches (about six, or, probably, more), a lunar mission," he noted.

According to the Roscosmos CEO, four launches under this program were initially scheduled for this year but the production of spacecraft was suspended amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. "Only one bunch of 36 spacecraft was delivered by the yearend. We launched them today. But these launches will be brought forward to 2021," he said, adding that further launches from Vostochny are planned for late February.

The first six OneWeb satellites were launched by a Soyuz-ST carriers rocket from the Kourou space center in French Guiana on February 28, 2019 and put in orbit on the same day. Two more launched were carried out this year from the Baikonur space center: 34 satellites on February 7, and 34 satellites more on March 21. In all, the company plans to deploy about 600 satellites.

The first launch of OneWeb satellites from the Vostochny spaceport was initially scheduled for April but the British company had to lodge a petition in bankruptcy for reorganization in the United States in March when it had failed to receive about two billion US dollars from investors. In July, the British government passed a decision to invest in its authorized capital to have control over OneWeb. The company acquisition was over in November.

Under the updated agreement with Arianespace, a French operator, 16 Russia Soyuz carrier rockets are to be launched from Kourou, Vostochny and Baikonur in 2020-2022 to put in orbit from 34 to 36 satellites at a time.

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