Announcing the recent launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage of OneWeb satellites, Arianespace executive Director Stefan Israel "remembered" the contribution of the Russian side to the mission only after he was "congratulated" by Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin, RIA Novosti writes.
"Today, together with our partner Starsem, we will hold a new launch of OneWeb! This mission, called ST36, will allow the operator to put more than half of its group into orbit," the European top manager wrote on Twitter.
"We are glad for you," the head of the state corporation commented on his message on Twitter, after which Israel listed all the participants of the launch, including Russian ones, and thanked them.
The launch, which took place on October 14 at 12:40 Moscow time, was the fifth for Vostochny in 2021. During the mission, 36 OneWeb spacecraft were launched into the Soyuz-2.1b orbit with the Frigate. During the previous four launches, which took place on March 25, April 25, May 28 and July 1, Soyuz-2.1b and Frigate also launched OneWeb satellites. To date, six launches have been conducted from the East in the interests of OneWeb.
Ivan Potapov
