Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said that the export of the RCN to the launch complex will take place on March 22
MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. The State Commission has decided on the readiness of the Soyuz-2.1 b launch vehicle (RCN), which is to launch 36 British OneWeb communications satellites into orbit, for export to the launch pad of the Vostochny cosmodrome on March 22. This was announced on Saturday by the Director General of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin.
"At the Vostochny cosmodrome, the State Commission decided to take the RCN to the launch complex on March 22, 2021," Rogozin wrote on his Twitter page.
In turn, Roscosmos noted that the space rocket is currently installed on a transport and installation unit.
Earlier, Glavkosmos reported that the launch of OneWeb satellites from Vostochny is scheduled for March 25. In total, this year Roscosmos plans to launch eight OneWeb spacecraft from the Baikonur, Vostochny and Kourou cosmodromes.
The first six OneWeb satellites went into orbit from the Kourou cosmodrome on a Soyuz-ST rocket on February 28, 2019. From Baikonur on February 7, 2020, 34 spacecraft were launched into space, and on March 21-the same number. For the first time, OneWeb satellites were launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome in December 2020. 36 vehicles were withdrawn. In total, the company intends to deploy about 600 satellites in low-Earth orbit.
OneWeb's updated agreement with Arianespace (the French company that acts as the operator) involves the launch of 16 Russian Soyuz rockets from the Kourou, Vostochny and Baikonur cosmodromes in 2020-2022. Each launch will allow you to put 34-36 spacecraft into orbit.
