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The initial deployment of OneWeb’s satellite broadband constellation reached its halfway stage on Thursday with the launch of 36 more spacecraft aboard a Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket.

The first six OneWeb satellites were launched in February 2019 to allow time for on-orbit testing before operational launches commenced

Soyuz is using a Fregat upper stage to deploy the OneWeb spacecraft into an orbit about 450 kilometers above the Earth, with the satellites using their electric propulsion systems to raise themselves into their operational orbits

While Soyuz has been the launcher of choice for OneWeb’s early missions, the company is keeping its options open for future satellites after recently signing a letter of intent with the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to place future satellites aboard India’s PSLV and GSLV Mk.III rockets

More pictures from the #Vostochny_Cosmodrome: the #Soyuz-2.1b with the #Fregat upper stage & 36 @OneWeb satellites are getting prepared for the upcoming launch

The Soyuz 2.1b offers increased performance through a redesign of the third stage, including a new RD-0124 engine

The first stage consists of four boosters clustered around the core – or second – stage

The third stage is mounted atop the second stage, with the OneWeb satellites – as well as the Fregat upper stage – enclosed within the payload fairing at the nose of the vehicle

The restartable Fregat upper stage was developed from the propulsion system of the Fobos probes that the Soviet Union sent to the Martian moon Phobos in the late 1980s and is frequently used as an upper stage on Soyuz to enable the delivery of satellites into higher, more precise or more complex orbits than would be possible with just the Soyuz vehicle itself

The Soyuz for the OneWeb 11 mission is rolled to the launch pad

For Soyuz, the final startup sequence saw the first and second stage engines ignite at the T-16 second mark

For the first 117 seconds of the flight, the first and second stage engines fired together to propel Soyuz through the dense lower regions of Earth’s atmosphere

For the second-third stage separation, Soyuz uses a “hot fire” approach, where the third stage’s RD-0124 engine ignites while the second stage is still burning

Just under an hour later, Fregat fired again for another short burn to circularize its orbit, setting up for the deployment of the OneWeb satellites