Moscow. March 6. INTERFAX-Roscosmos plans to conduct ten launches with spacecraft (SC) of the British company OneWeb in 2021, the head of the state corporation Dmitry Rogozin said.
"2021 - the launch of the MLM (multi-functional laboratory module-IF) and the Node Module to the ISS, the launch of Luna-25 with the European Pilot-D, the launch of 2 launch vehicles (launch vehicles - IF) of the Hangar, the launch of the Soyuz with space tourists, about 10 OneWeb launches each with 36 spacecraft (and this is not counting federal and other commercial launches, as well as launches under the manned program)," Rogozin said in his Telegram channel.
Earlier it was reported that the launch of the Soyuz-2.1 b carrier rocket with OneWeb satellites is scheduled for March 25.
In June 2015, Roscosmos signed a contract with Arianespace for 21 commercial launches of 672 communications satellites of the space system of the British company OneWeb on Soyuz-2 launch vehicles with Fregat family upper stages from the Baikonur, Vostochny, and Kourou cosmodromes in French Guiana. As reported, the contract value was $1.2 billion.
The first launch with six satellites took place in the spring of 2019 from the Kourou cosmodrome, in March 2020, a Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur, which put the third (and last at the moment) batch of 34 vehicles into orbit.
After the third launch, OneWeb declared bankruptcy and began searching for new investors.
As the company itself explained, it had to deal with the sale of its business as part of the bankruptcy procedure. According to its representatives, "although the company was close to receiving funding" as a result of negotiations with investors, the process is not progressing due to market turbulence associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Western media, a number of Chinese companies have already offered financial support to OneWeb.
