OneWeb turns to a competitor—SpaceX—to complete its constellation

Enlarge / A stack of OneWeb satellites is shown before a launch at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. (credit: OneWeb)

OneWeb announced on Monday that it has reached an agreement with SpaceX to complete its constellation of low Earth orbit broadband satellites.

This decision was necessitated after the United Kingdom-based company decided it could no longer launch on Russia's Soyuz rocket following the war against Ukraine. The Russian invasion occurred just days before 34 OneWeb satellites were due to launch on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan. In response to Western sanctions, Russia placed extraordinary demands on OneWeb in return for conducting the launch scheduled for March 4, and it ultimately did not take place. Those satellites remain in Kazakhstan for now.

Effectively, this ended OneWeb's agreement with Russia for satellite launches. The Soyuz had launched nearly all 428 of the company's satellites that are presently in orbit. The company had planned to use the Soyuz rocket to complete its first-generation constellation of 648 satellites by the end of 2022. Using Arianespace as an intermediary, OneWeb had already paid for those six launches. Russia has vowed not to return the money.

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