On December 18, Russia launched a fleet of 36 satellite into the targeted orbit on a Soyuz launch vehicle from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The historic launch at 12:26 GMT was a part of the UK government and Indian conglomerate Bharti Global’s operator OneWeb’s 648 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite programme which will provide fast, high-speed, low-latency global connectivity. Friday’s launch brought the total in-orbit launch to 110 satellites. “Today’s launch is one of many steps we have taken to operationalize one of the world’s first LEO constellations which clearly demonstrates we are on our way to achieving our mission,” Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Bharti Mittal said in a statement.
The satellite communications company streamed the lift-off live as the satellites detached from the rocket and dispensed within 3 hours 52 minutes in at least nine batches. The launch of the new batch was a contract signed between French company Ariane Space, Russia’s Roscosmos, NPO Lavochkina, and the Center for Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Facilities
