On October 14, at 09:40 UTC, Arianespace and its affiliate Starsem launched another 36 OneWeb satellites to orbit on a Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia. 

Vostochny is Russia’s newest launch site, and so far, only nine rockets have launched from the site since its opening in 2016 – mostly Soyuzes carrying OneWeb satellites.

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 358 satellites launched of a planned constellation of 648 OneWeb satellites, bringing the constellation to 55% complete.

OneWeb expects to begin commercial service at the end of this year to parts of Europe and North America.

This was the 1,947th R7-derived Soyuz since the first one launched 64 years ago.

More Information

Arianespace press kit