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All 36 OneWeb satellites went into target orbit after launch from Baikonur - Roscosmos

A Soyuz-2.2b rocket blasted off Baikonur at 4:10 pm Moscow time on Monday, the satellites separated from the booster in stages

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. All 36 UK OneWeb communications satellites have been placed into their target orbits after a launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday, Russian space corporation Roscosmos said.

"All 36 #OneWeb communications satellites successfully separated from the Fregat booster and were put into their target orbits," the state corporation said on Twitter.

A Soyuz-2.2b rocket blasted off Baikonur at 4:10 pm Moscow time on Monday. The satellites separated from the booster in stages. As a result of the latest launch, the number of the UK company’s in-orbit satellites increased to 394.

This was the first time that as many as 36 OneWeb satellites went into space from Baikonur. Previously, launches were for 34 satellites at a time.

The first six OneWeb satellites went into orbit onboard a Soyuz-ST rocket from the Kourou spaceport in February 2019. The satellites have also been launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

The launches are part of a contract that Russia’s Glavkosmos has with Arianespace and Starsem.