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Russia’s Soyuz-2.1b rocket assembled at Baikonur spaceport to launch OneWeb satellites

The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and a batch of 34 OneWeb satellites is scheduled for August 20

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. Specialists completed the assembly of a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket at the Baikonur spaceport to orbit OneWeb satellites on August 20, the press office of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Friday.

"Specialists of Roscosmos subsidiaries - the Yuzhny Space Center (a branch of the Center for the Operation of Ground-based Space Infrastructure Facilities) and a branch of the Progress Space Rocket Center - assembled the Mission 35 Soyuz-2.1b space rocket with the Fregat upper stage and OneWeb satellites," the statement says.

The space rocket is currently installed on the transport and installation unit before being rolled out to the launch complex. No faults were identified in the preparation of the rocket’s integral parts, Roscosmos specified.

"A meeting of the State Commission is planned for August 14 to clear the rocket for its rollout to the launch pad," it added.

The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and a batch of 34 OneWeb satellites is scheduled for 01:23 a.m. Moscow time on August 20 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch will boost the constellation of OneWeb satellites to 288 spacecraft. The delivery into orbit will take 3 hours and 45 minutes, Roscosmos said.