Next up, on Thursday, March 25 at 02:47 UTC, Arianespace and its affiliate Starsem launched a Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat into clear skies from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia. Vostochny is Russia’s newest launch site and so far only seven rockets have launched from the site since its opening in 2016. Onboard the Soyuz were 36 satellites for the OneWeb 5 mission. This was the second launch of OneWeb satellites from Vostochny after the OneWeb 4 mission in December 2020.

The live stream switched to an onboard camera just before booster separation and continued broadcasting until Fregat separation. The rocket’s Fregat upper stage conducted several engine burns over the course of two and a half hours and then inserted the 36 satellites into the target orbit in nine sets of four. This marks 146 satellites launched of a planned constellation of 648 OneWeb satellites.

More Information

Glavkosmos press release

Launch video