Soyuz-2.1b rocket with 36 OneWeb satellites successfully launched from Vostochny
Today, April 26, 2021, at 01:14:08 Moscow time, the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage successfully launched from the Russian Vostochny cosmodrome located in the Far East in the Amur Region.
The payload was 36 OneWeb spacecraft. This large-scale project, we recall, provides for the organization of high-speed satellite Internet access around the world.
According to Roskosmos, the rocket’s launch, the separation of the stages, and the orbital block took place as usual. After that, the Fregat upper stage began launching satellites into a target circular orbit with an altitude of 450 kilometers.
The sequential separation of nine groups of spacecraft from the Russian upper stage also regularly took place following the laid down flight sequence. Currently, all satellites have been launched into target orbits and taken under customer control.
” This launch was the third fully commercial from the Vostochny cosmodrome, implemented by order of the European provider of launch services Arianespace and the Russian-French company Starsem for the operator of the innovative satellite constellation OneWeb from the new Russian cosmodrome, ” Roscosmos said in a statement.