SpaceX lent a hand to company OneWeb after several of its planned launches in Russia were canceled in the wake of the Ukraine invasion.
A Falcon 9 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 5:27 p.m. Thursday, carrying 40 of the British company’s internet satellites.
The first-stage booster on this mission returned for a landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1.
After sanctions imposed by western nations including Great Britain after Russia’s invasion this year, Russia said it would not follow through with the remaining launches for its constellation of 648 low-latency broadband communication satellites unless the British government divested its stake in the company since it helped rescue OneWeb from bankruptcy in 2020.
After the Russian missions were canceled, OneWeb contracted with both SpaceX and India’s space agency to perform the six required launches to complete its constellation to provide global coverage by 2023. This first SpaceX launch will add 40 of the satellites, and marks the 15th OneWeb launch to date.
OneWeb has already has managed to launch 462 of its satellites. It’s similar to SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellite constellation, although Elon Musk’s plans involve thousands more.
While this marks OneWeb’s first launch from Florida, subsidiary OneWeb Satellites actually builds them in partnership with Airbus at a facility in Brevard County that opened in 2019.
Its constellation is already active in Alaska, Canada, the United Kingdom, Greenland and the wider Arctic area. The latest batch allows connectivity to increase for all points north of the 35th parallel, which runs around the globe crossing through the middle of the United States. The launch will also open up coverage in the Southern Hemisphere from the South Pole north to the 35th parallel south allowing for customers in southern Australia, South Africa, and parts of South America.
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