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posted by janrinok on Friday March 04 2022, @05:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the looking-for-a-new-trampoline dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Friday March 04 2022, @05:30PM (5 children)

    by Freeman (732) on Friday March 04 2022, @05:30PM (#1226685) Journal

    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"
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @05:47PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @05:47PM (#1226687)

    "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

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 04 2022, @05:53PM (#1226689) Journal
      Well, SpaceX has at least as much capacity as any Russian launcher does now for OneWeb.
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @09:53PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @09:53PM (#1226727)

      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

        by Freeman (732) on Monday March 07 2022, @02:45PM (#1227371) Journal

        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

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @10:23PM (#1226729)

    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.