MOSCOW: A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East on Monday carrying 36 UK telecommunications and internet satellites, the Roscosmos space agency said.
OneWeb, a London-headquartered company, is working to complete the construction of a constellation of low earth orbit satellites providing enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world. The company is competing against billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in the race to provide fast internet via satellites for the world’s remote areas.
Images released by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos showed the Soyuz rocket taking off against hazy skies Monday morning at 7:14 am local time (2214 GMT).
“All satellites have been successfully placed in target orbits and have been taken under customer control,” Roscosmos said in a statement. “Mission success!” OneWeb wrote on Twitter. The UK company plans for its global commercial internet service to be operational by next year, supported by some 650 satellites.
Monday’s launch was the third batch of its satellites placed into orbit from Russia, with earlier launches from the Vostochny cosmodrome of 36 satellites each taking place last month and in December.
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