SpaceX will replace Russia for OneWeb. Elon Musk’s company will help the competition

OneWeb has plans to provide access to the Internet from orbit, and in fact has already launched satellite services in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), nibbling SpaceX’s interest in its Starlinks. However, even despite the competition, it was revealed that SpaceX would replace Russia for OneWeb, giving it access to its space rockets.

After Russia stood up, OneWeb received an unexpected offer from a specific

OneWeb was acquired by the UK government and Bharti Global in 2020. With access to $ 2.7 billion, it intended to turn its vision into reality by sending a constellation of communications satellites into orbit. So far, it has used Russian Soyuz missiles operated by the French company Arianespace, which have already carried over 420 OneWeb satellites.

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However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian space agency Roscosmos demanded assurances that the OneWeb satellites would not be used for military purposes. The company refused and thus abandoned the launch of another 36 satellites on Soyuz, which was supposed to take place on March 4. However, the competition will unexpectedly help the company.

It turned out that SpaceX has entered into an agreement with OneWeb under which it will launch its satellites later this year. This means that in the near future, both Starlink and OneWeb satellites will be placed in low orbit around the Earth by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets.

The first launch of satellites by SpaceX is scheduled for 2022 and will increase the total OneWeb satellite constellation, which currently numbers 428 satellites, or 66 percent of the planned fleet.

We thank SpaceX for their support, which reflects our shared vision of the unlimited potential of outer space. With these plans, we are on track to complete our full satellite fleet and ensure reliable, fast and secure connectivity around the world

– we read in the OneWeb release.