Source: OneWeb satellites launch postponed because of the unavailability of devices
MOSCOW, 24 Aug — RIA Novosti. First British satellite launch OneWeb system from the European spaceport Kourou the Russian rocket “Soyuz-2” postponed to February 2019 because of the unwillingness of the spacecraft, and moves all subsequent program launches from Baikonur and East, reported RIA Novosti source in the space industry.
Upstairs
The constellation of satellites of the British company OneWeb will be deployed with the help of Russian carrier rockets “Soyuz-2”. For this chartered 21 start-up domestic carriers: five from Kourou, 10 from Baikonur and 6 from the cosmodrome East.
“Due to problems with the manufacture of spacecraft, the first launch on the OneWeb from Kourou is shifted by at least February 2019. Accordingly, there is a transfer of all the other launches for this program. The first launch from Baikonur will be held before the end of summer-beginning of autumn of 2019, and launches from Vostochny are shifted by the year 2020,” said the source.
Previously, the first qualification launch was scheduled from Kourou in December 2018, and the end of 2019, the OneWeb system had to achieve a minimum production configuration consists of 300 spacecraft and to begin providing commercial services to access the Internet from anywhere in the world.
“The transfer of the first start-up in February and the shift of the entire program of launches, even at the highest pace of launches in the second half of 2019, will not allow to deploy such a number of spacecraft and a working system OneWeb may be only in the first quarter of 2020,” — said the source.