One such partnership includes OneWeb, which is majority owned by the British government and has a contract with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, to launch several satellites that will form part of a new constellation of broadband internet supply. from space.
Currently, As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues, the UK government was advised not to use the Soyuz rocket, which is already equipped with 36 OneWeb satellites and is being launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on Friday.
Despite the importance of the service, Darren Jones, chair of the House of Commons Business Committee, called it “unsuitable” in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It’s a tough decision, given that OneWeb lacks a few launches to complete the constellation of 648 satellites – 428 already exist – and begin fully and globally serving the service.
But this is not only the sensitive side of the matter: all future launch missions are planned with Soyuz launchers, already paid services and are due to leave Baikonur in the coming months.
Notably, British taxpayers helped save OneWeb from bankruptcy in 2020, with a £400m stake, which raises the question if they would like to see the British-flagged company hire Russian services.
Russian service partners are now at a crossroads: The service is paid, the launch is prepared, and European missiles – such as the Ariane-5 or Ariane-6 – are not available for future launches.
In any case, switching to a different type of vehicle will require further studies, costly and time-consuming engineering of the mechanism, an unknown that puts Soyuz at the forefront of all hypotheses, while ensuring accuracy in the positioning of the satellites.
