On Monday, A Russian Soyuz rocket launched a batch of 36 satellites of the British operator OneWeb, into orbit. This event brought the company more than halfway closer to its goal of providing globally available broadband internet.
The UK-based firm is working to launch a constellation of low earth orbit satellites into space with an aim to provide high-speed broadband internet and other related services to countries across the globe.
The company targets to make its global commercial internet service operational by next year, with the help of some 650 satellites. Keeping in view the latest mission, it has already launched a total of 394 satellites in orbit for the constellation.
The Russian rocket, operated by Europe’s Arianespace, took off at 13:10 GMT from the Moscow-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan. Right after the launch, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency tweeted “LIFTOFF!”.
OneWeb has been trying to compete with tech billionaires, Elon Musk of Tesla and Jeff Bezos of Amazon, in an attempt to provide fast internet to remote areas across the globe via satellites.
In a similar event, SpaceX also launched the first of four planned Falcon9 rocket launches this month, carrying a stack of 48 Starlink satellites and two BlackSky Earth Observation satellites into orbit, in an attempt to provide high-speed internet coverage to users around the world, particularly those in remote or rural areas that do not have access to internet connections.