Moscow. June 20. INTERFAX-The launch of OneWeb satellites from the Vostochny cosmodrome will take place on July 1, the state corporation Roscosmos confirmed on Sunday.
"On July 1, 2021, the launch of the Soyuz-2.1 b carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and 36 OneWeb spacecraft on board is planned from the Vostochny cosmodrome," the corporation said in a statement.
On June 10, Roscosmos announced that 36 OneWeb spacecraft had arrived at Vostochny .
According to Roscosmos, 218 spacecraft have been launched into low-Earth orbit at the moment, and the upcoming launch will increase their number to 254.
OneWeb low-orbit satellites are designed to provide high-speed Internet directly via satellite communications.
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. The contract value was $1.2 billion. Roscosmos announced plans to conduct ten launches with such spacecraft in 2021.
On April 23, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that the state corporation and OneWeb held talks on April 9 at Baikonur on the conclusion of a new contract for the launch of the second generation of the company's devices.
Earlier, the first deputy head of Roscosmos for finance, Maxim Ovchinnikov, said in an interview with Interfax that the state corporation expects to conclude a contract with OneWeb for the launch of second-generation satellites.
"We will do everything to get this contract," Ovchinnikov said.