Dmitry Loskutov, General Director of Glavkosmos JSC, said that the devices are already under the fairing
MOSCOW, February 26. /tass/. The launch of the British OneWeb satellites, scheduled for March 5, on a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome will take place. This was announced on Saturday on the air of the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station by Dmitry Loskutov, General Director of Glavkosmos JSC.
"[Launch] on the night of March 4 to 5. <...> The vehicles are already under the fairing, the fairing has been rolled, and the rocket should be taken to the launch pad soon after the relevant decision of the commission," he said.
Loskutov noted that OneWeb's shareholders are not only the UK government: a large stake belongs to an Indian shareholder, Europeans also have shares, that is, this is an international grouping.
"Here the decision is up to OneWeb. <...> We believe that first of all, of course, it is in their interests to continue the launches, because we received most of the finances, the match was made. I think they won't "shoot themselves in the foot," but we'll see," Loskutov said, adding that "there were no statements [on OneWeb], this inspires cautious optimism."
Earlier, the EU imposed strict financial and technological sectoral restrictions against 64 key structures of the Russian Federation, including in relation to the Progress rocket and space center. The EU has severely restricted these structures' access to the capital market and financial services, banned the provision of technical assistance to them and trade in military or dual-use products and technologies with them. The EU has also banned the supply of an extensive list of high-tech products to Russia, in particular communication systems, electronics, semiconductors, aviation and space components.
In response to EU sanctions, Roscosmos suspends cooperation with European partners on the organization of launches from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana.
