Once again, it’s Russia’s turn to get some orbital action.
Today Russia’s Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket launched the British communications satellites
OneWeb into orbit. The launch took place at
the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:23 PM eastern time on August 19, 2021.
According to a contract between Arianespace and OneWeb
there would be 19 launches of Soyuz rockets, of which eight have already been completed launching
a total of 254 OneWeb satellites into orbit. Todays launch carried another batch of
34 OneWeb satellites that will be put into a near-polar orbit at an altitude of 450 kilometers.
The three hours and 45 minutes long mission will include a first separation of two satellites,
followed by eight separations of four satellites,
which will raise themselves to their operational orbit.
This was the ninth OneWeb launch, and it will raise the number of satellites
deployed in orbit to 288. The OneWeb program is working
toward delivering high-speed, low-latency global internet service - by air, sea and land - in 2022.
OneWeb is said to begin rolling out commercial satellite communications services
later this year. And by June 2022, it intends to deploy a constellation of
648 first-generation satellites, providing broadband Internet access,
to users around the world, with full coverage of the Earth's surface.
This makes OneWeb a direct competitor of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is rolling out a
similar satellite and space-based global internet coverage, through its ongoing Starlink project.
Today’s launch made use of a Soyuz-2-1b rocket with a Fregat-M booster upper stage.
The Soyuz-2-1b is a modernized version of the Soyuz family of rockets,
which trace their history back to 1966, when the first Soyuz launcher was introduced.
While retaining the basic design of the earlier rockets, the Soyuz-2 series was
engineered to improve performance and reliability. Three versions of the Soyuz-2 have been developed:
the Soyuz-2-1a, Soyuz-U, and Soyuz-2-1b, which was used in today’s OneWeb launch.
The standard Soyuz-2-1b is a three-stage rocket. Its upper stage- the Fregat booster -- can
be used to carry satellites into higher orbits than the core vehicle could reach,
or to inject payloads into more precise orbits. With the new and more powerful RD-0124
third-stage combustion engine, Soyuz 2-1b can lift up to 8.5 tonnes to low earth orbit.
The first stage consists of four boosters that are arranged around the central core and are tapered
cylinders, fitted with the RD-107A engines. The second stage is equipped with the RD-108A
engine. The third stage of the Soyuz 2-1b is powered by the RD-0124 engine.
The Fregat upper stage is an autonomous and flexible stage, designed to operate as an
orbital vehicle. It extends the capability of the lower three stages of the Soyuz vehicle,
to provide access to a full range of orbits. Fregat is powered by the S5.92 propellant
engine, which burns unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine fuel and nitrogen
tetroxide oxidizer to produce 2 tons of thrust. The engine is capable of up to 20 restarts,
during a mission. Fregat can provide more than 880 seconds of burn time.
The payload is secured by the 11.4m long ST Fairing which has a diameter of 4.1 m.
OneWeb Satellites is a joint venture between the global communications company, OneWeb, and Airbus,
the world’s second largest space company to manufacture low-cost, high-performance satellites.
Interestingly, India’s Bharti Global is the majority owner of OneWeb in a joint venture with
the UK government, SoftBank, and other partners. The European launch services provider Arianespace
is the company that operates launches of OneWeb spacecraft,
with the use of the Soyuz launch vehicle. Today’s launch further intensifies the race
for dominance, of the satellite constellations and space-based Internet services market,
which is about to bring a massive disruption to the global broadband industry.
That’ll be all for this video. I’ll see you in the next one….