OneWeb will launch its satellites with US SpaceX

Satellite operator OneWeb, which suspended its planned launches with the Russian Soyuz rocket, announced on Monday that it will resume them using the services of the American SpaceX to continue deploying its constellation.

“The company SpaceX closed an agreement that will allow OneWeb to resume satellite launches,” the operator said in a statement, stating that the first launch should take place this year.

“With these launch plans, we are well on track to complete the deployment of our satellite fleet and provide robust, fast and secure connectivity around the world,” said OneWeb chief Neil Materson, quoted in the statement.

So far, some 428 of the 648 satellites that will make up this low-orbit constellation have been launched. The first two thirds were put into orbit by Russian Soyuz rockets through the Starsem joint venture, which includes the European Arianespace and the Russian agency Roscosmos.

But in reaction to sanctions imposed by European countries following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Roscosmos suspended Soyuz's launches from French Guiana, prompting London-based OneWeb to give up launches from the Russian cosmodromes of Baikonur and Vostoshny.

Moscow had demanded that the British government give up its stake in the company, to no avail.

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