SpaceX put OneWeb communications satellites into orbit despite direct competition

Despite the fact that SpaceX and OneWeb are competitors, the company of Elon Musk has agreed to orbit "alien" satellites.

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OneWeb is trying to build a constellation of 648 satellites in low-Earth orbit. In February 2022, a rocket from the Russian company Roskosmos was already at the spaceport in Kazakhstan waiting to launch, but due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the launch was cancelled.

The day before SpaceX launched 40 satellites into orbit, increasing the OneWeb constellation to 502 spacecraft. A Falcon 9 rocket was used for the launch. This is enough to provide coverage of 80% of the territory of our planet. Three more launches are planned for 2023. One batch of satellites will be put into orbit by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

OneWeb provides satellite internet services in Alaska, as well as Canada, Great Britain and Greenland. The company is already working on second-generation satellites with increased performance.

OneWeb representatives say that the satellite Internet market is developing rapidly, so there is a place for both companies, which can complement each other. At the same time, they acknowledge that the customer base of OneWeb and SpaceX may overlap.

Source: Bloomberg