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Key bits; almost ready; then Corona came: "To date, the Company has successfully launched 74 satellites as part of its constellation, secured valuable global sp
by synctext 7y ago
Key bits; almost ready; then Corona came:
"To date, the Company has successfully launched 74 satellites as part of its constellation, secured valuable global spectrum, begun development on a range of user terminals for a variety of customer markets, has half of its 44 ground stations completed or in development, and performed successful demonstrations of its system with broadband speeds in excess of 400 Mbps and latency of 32 ms."
- londons_explore 7y ago74 out of 648 required for full service... They're 10% complete... And they are launching on Soyuz, which isn't exactly cheap when they need to do another 16 launches...
- redis_mlc 7y ago> they are launching on Soyuz, which isn't exactly cheap Exactly. Musk started making rockets when Russia wouldn't sell them on reasonable terms. The closer OneWeb got to finishing their constellation, the higher the bids would've been.
- greglindahl 7y agoOneWeb bought 21 Soyuz launches at once, which is enough for the initial constellation.
- redis_mlc 7y agoThat was smart, wonder if they can get a refund. :)
- greglindahl 7y agoWhen you buy a rocket launch, usually there are progress payments as the rocket is built. And if you stop paying, you forfeit the payment. So likely there's nothing to be refunded... and the rocket maker is stuck with 18 partially-assembled rockets. Which is an entire year of launches for Soyuz.
- bryanlarsen 7y agoElon Musk has indicated that he would be happy to launch OneWeb satellites. Obviously it's tough to give your competitor money, but at this stage the viability of SpaceX is not in doubt so OneWeb should go for the cheaper launches. Perhaps one goal of this bankruptcy reorganization is to break their Soyuz contract.