The launch of a Russian Soyuz launcher with 34 satellites on board has been postponed again, according to the operator Arianespace. The start should now take place on Sunday night.
Paris – The launch of a Russian Soyuz launcher with 34 satellites on board has been postponed again, according to the operator Arianespace.
The launch from the Russian spaceport Baikonur in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which has already been postponed by one day to Saturday night, should now take place on Sunday night (0.13 a.m. CEST), the company based in Evry near Paris announced on Friday evening.
The satellites of the British communications company OneWeb and the launcher are in a “stable and safe condition,” it said. A technical incident had prevented the original start, it should then initially take place on Saturday night. The reason given for the renewed postponement was additional preparation time.
The space bodies should enable a high-speed network for the Internet on earth. The now postponed mission is to increase the OneWeb fleet to 288 satellites, as Arianespace had announced. The plan is therefore to deploy the satellites at an altitude of 450 kilometers. It would be the ninth rocket launch with OneWeb satellites for Arianespace. According to its own information, OneWeb plans to deploy a total of 650 satellites. dpa
