Russia places extraordinary demands on OneWeb prior to satellite launch:
Russia has taken the extraordinary step of placing multiple demands on OneWeb and its government ownership prior to a planned launch of satellites Friday aboard a Soyuz rocket.
The mission, to loft 34 broadband communications satellites into orbit, was to be the 14th launch of OneWeb satellites. The company presently has 428 satellites in orbit, out of a planned total of 648 for its initial constellation. OneWeb had hoped to begin commercial service around the world later this year.
The vast majority of those satellites have launched on Russian Soyuz rockets, one of the few boosters in the world with spare lift capacity for a megaconstellation at this time. Another six Soyuz launches were scheduled for later this year to complete the OneWeb constellation.
But those plans were thrown into question by Russia's invasion of Ukraine last week. OneWeb, which is jointly owned by the United Kingdom government and an Indian multinational company, has not offered any public comments since the invasion.
Russia is demanding guarantees that OneWeb not be used for military purposes and that the UK sell its share in the company. If you have some spare trampolines and your name doesn't rhyme with Melon Usk, please contact OneWeb ASAP.
Related Stories
OneWeb to Restart Internet Satellite Launches Using SpaceX Rockets:
After canceling business with Russia's space program, OneWeb is tapping rival SpaceX to help it launch its remaining internet satellites into orbit.
"We are pleased to announce that we have entered into a launch agreement withSpaceX that will enable OneWeb to resume satellite launches," UK-based OneWeb announced on Twitter today. The first launch of the OneWeb satellites using SpaceX rockets is scheduled for sometime later this year, the company added.
OneWeb previously relied on Russia's Roscosmos to launch the satellites. However, the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions from Europe caused Roscosmos to essentially retaliate by postponing an upcoming launch of OneWeb satellites.
Roscosmos then demanded the UK government divest itself from OneWeb. In response, the company canceled all launches through Russia's space program.
OneWeb's contingency plan of using SpaceX is a little surprising since both companies are competing in the internet satellite market. This has resulted in some bickering amongst each other in government regulatory filings. Last year, for example, OneWeb accused SpaceX's satellite internet system of colliding with its own.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Friday March 04 2022, @05:30PM (5 children)
OneWeb wasn't doing so great, before it got some life support. Now, it's needing to rely on Russian rockets to get to space? Yeah, good luck with that. At this point, they'd be far better off begging some rides off SpaceX. Sure, they're "the competition", but they've got the cheapest, most frequent, and pretty much best ride to space available.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @05:47PM (3 children)
"they've got the cheapest, most frequent, and pretty much best ride to space available."
Not for satellite constellations, they don't.
At least read TFS...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday March 04 2022, @05:53PM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @09:53PM (1 child)
SpaceX policy is to bump Starlink to make room for paying customers. Finishing OneWeb means cash in the bank and at most a seven week delay for Starlink expansion, which is nothing. I say 'at most' because Falcon 9 is a bigger rocket so they might not need seven launches for OneWeb, and Starship could catch Starlink up again in at most two flights.
The only reason OneWeb hasn't used SpaceX already is because of internal politics.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 07 2022, @02:45PM
Also, it "doesn't look good" to be using your competitor's launch vehicles to get your product in space. Then again, maybe SpaceX said no, because of liability issues. Lose a OneWeb launch and "Was it an accident?" could be an actual question.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @10:23PM
If OneWeb wants to finish launching in the next two years then SpaceX is the only ride to space. Anything Russian is no longer an option. China is out due to a hard earned ITAR ban (OneWeb's birds are made in the USA). Every other rocket in the world is at least one of: sold out, too small, not flying yet, or made in Ukraine.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday March 04 2022, @05:54PM (1 child)
Depending on a level of censorship you currently suffer, OneWeb crisis is actually week old news.
The second project doomed to the same fate is joint ESA ExoMars mission with Rosalind rover.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/28/22955003/esa-exomars-roscosmos-rosalind-franklin-rover-red-planet [theverge.com]
Any marketing tips for some shiny branded brooms?
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @10:29PM
ExoMars is in a worse spot because they depend on a Russian built lander as well. Roscosmos was dying but after this you can stick a fork in them, because they're done.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @06:16PM (8 children)
On the one hand, they've joined some cold-war era Quad on marginalizing China.
On the other hand, when Russia actually launches an invasion of an independent sovereign nation, India pursues "neutrality" because their elites made some business deals.
Money talks bullshit walks.
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Friday March 04 2022, @06:19PM (6 children)
Ukraine: Why India is not criticising Russia over invasion [bbc.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @07:05PM (2 children)
> Russia continues to be India's largest arms supplier
Check the financial news, some of the big Wall St investment companies (and banks) are buying up cheap Russian company stock, bonds or other obligations. Seems like the sanctions don't cover this kind of economic activity (yet)?
Anyway, one possible (if far fetched) end game is that the world financial community ends up owning a big chunk of Russian industry. At which point India might find themselves buying from the "Fer Eastern European" branch of the established MIC. And Putin might find his current "CEO" position cancelled by the new owners.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday March 04 2022, @08:43PM (1 child)
I *think*, though I'm certainly not sure, that in Russia the state controls the corporations rather than the other way around. They appear (to me) to be rather like China in that, though with less civility.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @09:23PM
The corruption that set in under Communism remained in place after the dissolution of the USSR, Russia is a state as criminal enterprise. [in-formality.com] It's not like China where's there's a PLA officer in the executive of every company but a "thugocracy" with Putin the "roof" of the hierarchy.
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Friday March 04 2022, @07:32PM
There is some historical context as well:
Fifty years ago, during the war for liberation of Bangladesh, India was threated by both USA and UK and was supported by the USSR.
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 [fandom.com]
[Also]: Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 [wikipedia.org]
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @08:05PM
The West doesn't really do enough to make friends with India. It's a real democracy (unlike Pakistan which is only sort of sometimes) and needs to buy a lot of military hardware. And they were on the right side of the Bangladesh issue. But the US needed Pakistan against the Soviets, and the nature of the relationship between Pakistan and India is that it's hard to have military ties with both.
So, this puts India in the weird position of being economically and culturally aligned with the West, but politically their natural ally is Russia.
It might even work out for the better. US ties probably keep Pakistan from turning into Hungary. We can pretty much trust India to behave, at least in international relations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @12:32AM
Oh man, the shit really hit the fan there. They broke out some really strong words.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @02:58AM
One more thing. India is not west's Lackey. The West has created Chinese dictatorship, Pakistan's military coups and continues to blame India for not supporting Ukraine. Next time plan for longer term and have some respect for older cultures than yours. This is not India's war.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @10:30PM (1 child)
WTF is it with the comments at the end of the FS? No call for this. This is what the eds used to complain about with aristarchus subs, and now they are doing it? O! Tempora! O! Fingerpainting!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @12:31AM
Subby, here. That comment after the summary was me. If you've been following the political situation between OneWeb, SpaceX, and Roscosmos, it is entirely on point: OneWeb is in desperate need of a Rogozin Trampoline, but they don't want to deal with SpaceX, now or ever, so if you have any they can use they'd love to hear from you.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by inertnet on Friday March 04 2022, @10:49PM (1 child)
Somewhat related, does anybody know if there are any changes in how and when the current ISS crew is returning to Earth? I've read that 3 Russians are planned to go up there in a couple of weeks, so most of the crew will be Russian by then.
Generally speaking, are there any changes expected or already known for other space missions?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @01:26AM
Current ISS crew will need to return on their assigned vehicles since the flight suits aren't cross compatible. That means that Mark T. Vande Hei [wikipedia.org] will be returning to Earth on Soyuz MS-19. Roscosmos would not willingly move the landing site away from their recovery infrastructure, and for good reason. Frankly, he should be safe enough. Taking an American astronaut hostage would be an act of war against the US, something Putin wants to avoid.
ISS crew will be exactly half Russian while both Soyuz are docked. (3 US, 1 Ger on Crew 3, 2 Rus, 1 US on MS-19, 3 Rus on MS 21) After MS-19 leaves it will be 3 US, 3 Rus, and 1 Ger until Crew 4 arrives. The next Russian rotation is currently scheduled to have an American on board, and Crew 5 is scheduled to have a Russian.
OneWeb and ExaMars both lost launch slots, maybe flight hardware as well, and Russia has officially kicked NASA off their next Venus probe.