OneWeb is edging toward the launch of an internet service similar to SpaceX’s Starlink, which uses satellites in low Earth orbit to beam broadband from space.
U.K.-based OneWeb confirmed at the weekend the successful deployment of 34 internet satellites, bringing its total constellation to 288 satellites. The communications company said the deployment puts it on track to begin a global internet service in 2022, delivered by a planned fleet of 648 satellites. Before then, by the end of this year, it hopes to launch a trial service in parts of Alaska and Canada.
OneWeb’s latest payload launched aboard an Arianespace Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Saturday, August 21 at just after 6:10 p.m. ET. You can watch the liftoff in the video below.
In a release posted shortly after Saturday’s mission, OneWeb said it’s seeing growing interest from telecommunications providers, ISPs, and governments in its internet service that’s set to offer low-latency, high-speed connectivity services to remote locations on Earth.
OneWeb deployed its first batch of internet satellites in February 2019, leaving it almost a year before its second launch. Since then, it’s been ramping up deployments with close to one launch a month taking place since March. The next one is planned for September when it’ll deploy a further 34 satellites.
OneWeb’s efforts to provide an internet service from space sees it competing with SpaceX and its already up-and-running Starlink beta service, which currently has more than 1,700 internet satellites orbiting Earth following the first deployment in May 2019. SpaceX’s service currently serves 12 countries, with customers required to pay a one-time fee of $499 for the Starlink kit and then $99 per month for the broadband service.
Amazon also has plans to launch more than 3,200 internet satellites for its proposed Project Kuiper constellation.
OneWeb has had a rocky ride to get to where it is today. Eight years after it was founded, the company entered bankruptcy in March 2020 after failing to secure the necessary funds to complete its satellite constellation. However, eight months later a rescue package put together by the British government and Indian multinational company Bharti Global enabled OneWeb to continue its business and push toward its goal.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.