![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/8735_onewebsatellites_162491.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the U.K.) announced today they are acquiring the U.S. and U.K.-based company OneWeb, which filed for bankruptcy in March 2020 after failing to attract enough capital and customers for its planned internet satellite constellation and operating in a high debt-to-income ratio.<\/p>\n
The decision for the U.K. government to purchase OneWeb came with few details about when satellite launches will resume and exactly what the OneWeb satellites will now be used for and even who will have access to them once launched.<\/p>\n
The overall deal is worth $1 billion USD, with the U.K. government and Bharti Enterprises Ltd. (an Indian-based company with an operational arm in the U.K.) each committing $500 million USD to the acquisition deal.<\/p>\n
The buy-out is expected to close by the end of the year and will represent a 90% overall stake in OneWeb, with the organization\u2019s original investors maintaining a 10% share according to reports from Bloomberg News.<\/p>\n
The OneWeb constellation was built and designed to be a broadband internet space-based service, providing internet to rural and urban areas that lack the infrastructure for internet connections or to provide an alternative to existing services. <\/p>\n
However, one of the confusing elements of the purchase is arguably the announcement from the U.K. government that they wish to use OneWeb as a space-based navigation system \u2013 something it was not designed to do. <\/p>\n
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OneWeb\u2019s Florida manufacturing facility located just outside the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Credit: OneWeb)<\/p>\n
Moreover, the U.K. already seems to be limiting the potential profit and use of its soon-to-be acquired constellation by saying the U.K. government will limit which nations have access to the platform. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.K. government will have a final say over any future sale of the company, and over future access to OneWeb technology by other countries on national security grounds,\u201d noted the announcement.<\/p>\n
The acquisition deal, which has been in work for several months at this point, comes in a week of not-so-good space news for the United Kingdom, which was overlooked by the European Space Agency earlier this week for contracts to build the next six Copernicus Earth observation satellites. <\/p>\n
Given the current geopolitical context, it is hard to disassociate this purchase of OneWeb from a potentially rushed decision to make it look like the U.K. is not lagging behind as a consequence of the nation\u2019s decision to leave the European Union and isolate itself in some regards from the expanding European space markets.<\/p>\n
But exactly how this purchase will financially benefit the United Kingdom and increase their prowess in the arena of space is yet unknown; and this purchase actually raises more questions in that area than it answers.<\/p>\n
Only vague references to \u201cincreasing U.K.-based manufacturing\u201d and the potential for \u201cmillions of people worldwide\u201d to be connected to internet services for the first time were made in the government\u2019s press release.<\/p>\n