SpaceX successfully launched 40 OneWeb satellites, the low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company. This launch took place from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, 08 December 2022. This will be OneWeb’s 15th to date and second since recommencing its campaign with a successful launch from India in October, placing the company on the path to delivering global coverage in 2023.
SpaceX agreed to launch satellites for OneWeb after the London headquartered company broke ties with Russia in March. At the beginning of 2019, Russian Soyuz rockets already had launched 13 batches of OneWeb satellites.
SpaceX has more than 3,200 Starlink satellites in orbit, providing high-speed, broadband internet to rural and remote corners of the world. Amazon plans to launch the first of its internet satellites in early 2023 from Cape Canaveral. Adding up to the market for global internet service ‘growing exponentially’ there’s a chance for everybody, said Massimiliano Ladovaz, Chief Technology Officer of OneWeb.
This milestone mission indicates OneWeb’s first time launching from Florida, where its satellites are also put together by OneWeb Satellites – a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus. This launch will add another 40 satellites to OneWeb’s 648 LEO satellite fleet, almost 80% of its first-generation constellation that will deliver global comprehensive connectivity for its collaborators.
The launch will accelerate the company to substantially expand service and introduce additional connectivity solutions soon for collaborators across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and much of the Middle East, indicating all positions north of the 35th parallel.
From connectivity flows a better quality of life New Horizons and greater opportunities. So, what can we do to ensure everybody can experience the benefits of connectivity?
This is the OneWeb mission is to bridge that digital divide to serve businesses and rural communities to further scientific understanding and collaboration and OneWeb is doing this by bringing high-speed broadband internet from space to places where this opportunity was previously unimaginable for every customer connected via the OneWeb network.
The expansion of the OneWeb fleet will also enable coverage between the South Pole and the 35th parallel south, opening connectivity services in South Africa, Southern Australia, and parts of South America.
OneWeb’s connectivity solutions are already effective in Alaska, the UK, Canada, Greenland, and the wider Arctic area to supply internet connectivity to unserved and underserved rural and remote communities and businesses in the region.
About SpaceX
SpaceX designs manufacture and launch the world’s most innovative rockets and spacecraft. Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to revolutionize space transportation, with the ambition of creating life multi-planetary. SpaceX has earned global interest for a series of significant milestones. In December 2010, SpaceX became the only private company ever to return a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, which it first achieved. The company created history again in May 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft attached to the International Space Station, exchanged cargo payloads and returned safely to Earth – a technologically demanding feat previously accomplished only by governments. Since then, Dragon has transported cargo to and from the space station on numerous occasions, offering regular cargo resupply missions for NASA.