OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellite communications company,is emerging from U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is restarting production of satellites. A consortium of UK Government (through the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and Bharti Global, has invested $1 billion of new equity to offer broadband connectivity services, via a constellation of 650 LEO satellites.
A factory near Kennedy Space Center is returning to full production of eight satellites a week.
OneWeb Satellites’ factory began operations in March 2019, to build satellites for OneWeb’s planned constellation of up to 650 broadband communications satellites. The company made over 70 satellites in 12 months.
OneWeb is a competitor to SpaceX Starlink. SpaceX Starlink has about 955 satellites in orbit and is launching about 180 new satellites every month. SpaceX should have 1440 satellites deployed for its full phase 1 by February or March.
OneWeb will launch throughout 2021 and 2022. OneWeb will begin commercial connectivity services to the UK and the Arctic region in late 2021 and will expand to delivering global services in 2022.
SOURCES- OneWeb
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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