OneWeb had earlier announced its partnership with NSIL (NewSpace India Limited), the commercial arm of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). The partnership was to enable OneWeb to launch satellites with the help of NSIL within India. Now, this partnership has finally shown some development. OneWeb and NSIL/ISRO have announced the historic launch of 36 satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota (SDSC-SHAR), India. The satellites have arrived at SDSC-SHAR. This will be OneWeb's 14th launch to complete its planned constellation of satellites across the globe.
ISRO's heaviest rocket, GSLV-MkIII, will be used to send the OneWeb satellites into orbit. Post the launch, OneWeb would have completed 70% of its planned Gen 1 LEO (low earth orbit) constellation for delivering high-speed, low-latency connectivity services around the world. The company said that one additional launch would take place this year, and three more are targeted for early next year to complete the constellation.
OneWeb wants to provide global coverage of satellite networks by 2023. The services of the company are already available in Canada, Alaska, the UK and the Arctic region. OneWeb will partner with Hughes Communications India Pvt Limited (HCIPL) for distribution in India.
