Eight British satellites launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome were put into orbit

As stated in the message "Roscosmos" on Twitter, was "separation of the first four satellites OneWeb from the upper stage "Fregat", and later were separated four satellites.

Soyuz-2.1b was launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur Region at 5.47 Moscow time. It will take about four hours to put all 36 vehicles into orbit.

It's worth to note that this is the second fully commercial rocket launch and the first from Vostochny this year. Recall that the FSB in 2019 called the OneWeb project to extend the Internet to the whole Earth as a potential threat to Russia's national security.

Soyuz-2.1b was created at the Progress Rocket and Space Center. The rocket is a modification of the Soyuz-2. Unlike its predecessor, the new model has an engine with increased energy characteristics in the third stage.

Earlier, Soyuz-2.1b has already sent Glonass satellites and Meteor-M meteorological satellites into orbit.