Moscow. February 7. INTERFAX - The Soyuz-ST-B carrier rocket with British OneWeb communications satellites has been installed at the launch complex of the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana, Glavkosmos (part of Roscosmos) reported.
"The Russian Soyuz-ST-B launch vehicle is installed on the launch pad of the Guiana Space Center," the report says.
The calculation, consisting of foreign customers and Roscosmos enterprises, has started pre-launch work.
The launch of the Soyuz-ST-B rocket with 34 OneWeb spacecraft is scheduled for February 10 at 21:09 Moscow time.
The grouping of OneWeb satellites in low Earth orbit has 394 spacecraft, the upcoming launch will bring their number to 428.
"The next OneWeb missions throughout 2022, which will use the Russian Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle (manufactured by Progress RCC JSC, Samara), will allow OneWeb to start providing services around the world this year," Glavkosmos reported.
In July 2021, the British company announced that it plans to complete the deployment of a satellite constellation to provide global coverage by June 2022. According to OneWeb, the grouping in low Earth orbit will consist of 648 satellites.
In December, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, announced that in 2022, according to the OneWeb program, Soyuz rockets are planned to carry out six launches from Russian cosmodromes and one from the cosmodrome in French Guiana.