Soyuz-2.1b rocket with British OneWeb satellites launched from Vostochny cosmodrome

The rocket will launch 36 communication satellites of the British company OneWeb into orbit. This launch was the second at Vostochny in 2021. The first launch took place on March 25. Then, eight British satellites were launched on the launch vehicle.

Thus, today's launch became the third fully commercial one, carried out from the Amur cosmodrome in the current year.

Note 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 sent Glonass satellites and Meteor-M meteorological satellites into orbit.