Arianespace Flight VS27 marks the first flight of the year with OneWeb — this 13th mission on behalf of OneWeb placed 34 additional satellites into orbit, bringing the total OneWeb fleet to 428 satellites into a near-polar orbit at an altitude of 450 kilometers. After separation, the satellites will raise themselves to their operational orbit.
The satellites will deliver high-speed, low-latency enterprise grade connectivity services to a wide range of customer sectors including enterprise, government, maritime and aviation customers.
Central to its purpose, OneWeb seeks to bring connectivity to every unconnected area where fiber cannot reach, and thereby bridge the digital divide. Once deployed, the OneWeb constellation will enable user terminals that are capable of offering 3G, LTE, 5G and Wi-Fi coverage, providing high-speed access globally – by air, sea and land.
These OneWeb missions through 2022 will enable the start of OneWeb’s global services this year.
- Thanks to this mission, Arianespace exceeds the number of 100 satellites launched on Soyuz from the CSG, precisely 101 after the launch.
- The OneWeb satellites are the 1102nd to 1135th satellites launched by Arianespace.
- The OneWeb satellites are the 531st to 564th Airbus Defence and Space satellites to be orbited by Arianespace.
This launch kicks off a successful start to 2022 as demand for OneWeb’s broadband connectivity services has continued to grow across telecommunications providers, aviation and maritime markets, ISPs, and governments worldwide. Most recently, the Company has signed new distribution partnership agreements with several companies in the last month – including Hughes Network Systems, Marlink, and Field Solutions Holdings – to help ensure connectivity is delivered to the most hard-to-reach places globally.
Liftoff of the latest launch occurred on Thursday, 10th of February 2022. OneWeb’s satellites separated from the rocket and were dispensed in nine batches over a period of 3 hours 33 minutes with signal acquisition on all 34 satellites confirmed.
Neil Masterson, OneWeb CEO, said, “Our first launch of the year marks our significant progress in completing a truly global LEO network later in 2022. We continue to see growing demand for OneWeb’s industry-leading services as we look forward to delivering on our ambition to build robust, secure, and global access to broadband services.”
OneWeb dedicated this latest launch to the Company’s commitment to Responsible Space – its belief that space is a shared natural resource and it is up to all of us to help safeguard it for use today and by future generations. OneWeb’s Responsible Space initiative is comprised of three core elements; committing to responsible design and operations, sustaining the space ecosystem to support new technologies to advance in this area and, lastly, engaging in advancing policy outcomes to balance growing the space economy while ensuring its protection.
