Arianespace announced this morning it was resuming launch operations for the deployment of the OneWeb constellation. That constellation has 74 satellites in orbit to date. In a Tweet, OneWeb also reiterated its plan on to deliver commercial services to several markets including Canada.
“We are returning-to-flight with @Arianespace & planning our next launch for December. Schedule will put us on track to deliver commercial services to regions including: U.K., Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic seas & Canada.”
Arianespace says the next launch “is planned as soon as December 2020 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome” and will have 36 satellites onboard. Arianespace will also launch an additional 15 Soyuz flights from “three spaceports (Kourou, Baikonur and Vostochny)” through 2022.
OneWeb now plans to have its constellation of 650 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites fully deployed by the end of 2020.
OneWeb did qualify the news saying “this amended agreement, which remains subject to confirmation and consummation of OneWeb’s restructuring plan, is an important milestone for OneWeb as it plans to emerge from the Chapter 11, with HM Government and Bharti Global as the prevailing bidders in OneWeb’s bankruptcy sale process. It confirms that the company will be well-placed to offer enterprise-grade connectivity services for communities, businesses, and governments in a short timeframe.”