Bharti Group-backed OneWeb launches 34 satellites successfully; total in-orbit satellites reach 288

After the successful completion of its ‘Five to 50’ mission, the Bharti Group-backed low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company OneWeb confirmed the successful launch of 34 satellites by Arianespace from the Baiknour Cosmodrome. The lift-off took place at 11:13 am on August 22 wherein OneWeb’s satellites separated from the rocket and were dispensed in nine batches over a period of 3 hours 45 minutes with signal acquisition on all 34 satellites confirmed.

These satellites were flown into operational orbit to deliver fast, reliable, enterprise-grade internet to the hardest-to-reach places and communities above 50 degrees North. These locations are Alaska in USA, Iceland, Canada, Northern Europe, Greenland, Finland, the UK and the Arctic seas.

“Mission success! We can confirm signal acquisition on all 34 satellites for One Web Launch 9. This brings us closer to our vision for global connectivity- we’re incredibly grateful to our partners for all their efforts to make this possible,” OneWeb tweeted on the success of this mission.

With this launch being a success, OneWeb’s total in-orbit constellation has reached 288 satellites. These satellites will, in turn, form a part of the company’s 648 LEO satellite fleet aimed at delivering high-speed, low-latency global connectivity, as per the company’s press release.

“Following the successful completion of our ‘Five to 50’ mission, we are building on our success and embarking on an ambitious back-to-back launch programme until the end of 2021. We are seeing huge demand for our services from global customers, and we are incredibly excited about scaling our network ahead of its commercial launch,” OneWeb CEO Neil Masterson said. He further added, “This success is down to our talented team and partners around the world, who continue to work relentlessly every day to deliver OneWeb’s constellation and bring connectivity to those in the hardest to reach places.” Business Today