{"id":9993,"date":"2024-10-20T00:05:39","date_gmt":"2024-10-19T16:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-launches-final-gen-1-oneweb-satellites-on-100th-orbital-flight-of-2024\/"},"modified":"2024-10-20T00:05:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T16:05:39","slug":"spacex-launches-final-gen-1-oneweb-satellites-on-100th-orbital-flight-of-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-launches-final-gen-1-oneweb-satellites-on-100th-orbital-flight-of-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches final Gen. 1 OneWeb satellites on 100th orbital flight of 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_67614\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67614\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-67614\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241020_OneWeb-20_satellite_deployment.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241020_OneWeb-20_satellite_deployment.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241020_OneWeb-20_satellite_deployment-300x145.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241020_OneWeb-20_satellite_deployment-678x327.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241020_OneWeb-20_satellite_deployment-768x371.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-67614\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The final two satellites in a batch of 20 OneWeb Gen. 1 satellites are deployed at the tail end of the OneWeb Launch #20 mission. Image: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX completed its 100th orbital launch of the year for its Falcon family of rockets late Saturday night in California. It reach this first-time milestone by launching OneWeb\u2019s final batch of its first generation internet satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The mission, dubbed OneWeb Launch #20, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 10:13 p.m. PDT on Saturday, Oct. 19 (1:13 a.m. EDT, 0513 UTC on Sunday, Oct. 20).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RdmvurETHjE\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, tail number B1082 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a seventh time. It previously supported USSF-62 and five Starlink missions.<\/p>\n<p>A little less than eight minutes after liftoff, B1082 returned to Vandenberg for a propulsive touchdown at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4). This made the 21st booster landing at LZ-4 and the 77th land landing for SpaceX to date.<\/p>\n<p>The mission caps off a busy week for SpaceX, which also saw the launches of its Starship rocket, a Falcon Heavy rocket and three other Falcon 9 rockets. So far in 2024, SpaceX launched 98 Falcon 9 rockets and is scheduled to launch its 99th Falcon 9 on Monday, Oct. 21, on the Starlink 6-61 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2-PSODNOwJY?si=PhWZMJBvCETfL_A8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4>OneWeb Gen. 1 finale<\/h4>\n<p>The journey to cap off the first generation of OneWeb\u2019s satellite internet constellation has been anything but a straight line to the end. OneWeb had to turn to multiple launch providers to complete its constellation of 634 satellites with Launch 19 on May 20, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s original plan for the Gen. 1 constellation was to have 648 satellites in orbit. The 20 satellites onboard Launch #20 will put it well over that threshold.<\/p>\n<p>The first batch of six satellites launched on Feb. 27, 2019 on a Soyuz rocket, which lifted off from French Guiana. The company hoped to begin monthly launches starting in January 2020, but Launch #2 didn\u2019t happen until February 2020, when 34 satellites launched on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.<\/p>\n<p>While the third launch did happen about a month later out of Baikonur, the fourth launch from Russia\u2019s Vostochny Cosmodrome was delayed until December 2020 due to OneWeb\u2019s bankruptcy woes and subsequent acquisition by Bharti Global, an Indian conglomerate, and the UK government.<\/p>\n<p>The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth launches took place at Vostochny on March 25, April 25, May 27 and July 1 respectively. Launch #9 saw a return to Baikonur on Aug. 22, 2021, adding another 34 satellites to bring the total of 288 on orbit at that point.<\/p>\n<p>Launch #10 lifted off from Baikonur on Sept. 14, 2021, Vostochny for Launch #11 on Oct. 14, 2021, back to Baikonur for Launch #12 on Dec. 27, 2021, and then back to French Guiana for Launch #13 on Feb. 10, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>However, OneWeb hit a big roadblock as it heading into the planned Launch #14 mission. With Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, OneWeb announced its suspension of ties with Roscosmos just days before the planned launch in March 2022. The satellites for that mission remain in Russia to this day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Board of OneWeb has voted to suspend all launches from Baikonur,\u201d OneWeb said in a brief statement at the time. The company wasn\u2019t happy to lose its launch provider, since it was will under contract with Arianespace to fly onboard six more Soyuz rockets to complete its constellation.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_60436\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-60436\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-60436\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/20230109f9oneweblaunch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/20230109f9oneweblaunch.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/20230109f9oneweblaunch-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/20230109f9oneweblaunch-678x452.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/20230109f9oneweblaunch-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-60436\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 with 40 more OneWeb internet satellites. Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Later in March, OneWeb announced launch agreements with both SpaceX and the Indian Space Research Organization to launch its remaining satellites on three Falcon 9 rockets and two Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) rockets.<\/p>\n<p>Those Falcon 9 launches took place on Dec. 8, 2022, Jan. 10, 2023, and Mar. 9, 2023, (Launch #15, #16 and #17 respectively) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, close to where the satellites are manufactured at the Airbus OneWeb Satellites facility on Merritt Island.<\/p>\n<p>ISRO completed Launch #14 and #18 on Oct. 22, 2022, and March 25, 2023, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India.<\/p>\n<p>OneWeb then announced in May 2023 that it was planning to launch another 16 satellites onboard the Launch #19 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, which included a demonstration satellite for its Gen. 2 fleet called \u201cJoeySat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeveloped through the European Space Agency and UKSA Sunrise Partnership programme, JoeySat carries an innovative payload design which will demonstrate digital regenerative processing, electronically steered multi-beam arrays, and digital beamforming and beam-hopping technologies,\u201d OneWeb wrote at the time. \u201cThese capabilities, planned for OneWeb\u2019s Gen 2 constellation, will offer more flexibility and capacity to customers, optimizing resources to manage real-time surges in commercial demand or to enable rapid responses to emergencies such as natural disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since that launch, OneWeb entered into a partnership with Eutelsat to form the Eutelsat Group, combining the capabilities of the company\u2019s low Earth orbit and geostationary Earth orbit satellites.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_61503\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61503\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61503\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230326lvm3liftoff.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230326lvm3liftoff.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230326lvm3liftoff-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230326lvm3liftoff-678x451.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230326lvm3liftoff-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-61503\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">India\u2019s LVM3, or GSLV Mk.3, rocket lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center with 36 OneWeb satellites. Credit: ISRO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The final two satellites in a batch of 20 OneWeb Gen. 1 satellites are deployed at the tail end of the OneWeb Launch #20 mission. Image: SpaceX SpaceX completed its 100th orbital launch of the year for its Falcon family of rockets late Saturday night in California. It reach this first-time milestone by launching OneWeb\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1276,479,1277,1278,316],"class_list":["post-9993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-eutelsat-group","tag-falcon-9","tag-oneweb","tag-oneweb-20","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}