SpaceX plans to launch forty OneWeb Internet communications satellites on 2023-01-10 at 04:50 UTC, which is 23:50 EST on 2023-01-09 at the launch site. This will be the second flight of Falcon 9 booster B1076 with a turn-around time of 44 days since its last flight. The launch will be from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Weather is currently forecast as 90% favourable for launch. The first stage booster will return to the launch site for a landing at Landing Zone 1.
The satellites will be delivered into an initial polar low Earth orbit from which they will raise their altitude to the operational 1200 km circular orbit using their on-board xenon thrusters. This is the second SpaceX launch for OneWeb, which had previously launched on Soyuz boosters procured through Arianespace prior to termination of the Soyuz contract after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 2022-10-22, OneWeb launched 36 satellites on an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)) GSLV Mk III rocket and SpaceX previously launched 40 satellites on 2022-12-08 on the OneWeb 15 mission. After this mission, three additional launches are planned to complete deployment of the OneWeb constellation: two are booked on SpaceX Falcon 9 and one on the ISRO GSLV Mk III.
OneWeb does not market satellite Internet connectivity directly to individual customers as does SpaceX’s Starlink. Its primary customers are telephone companies (for cellular backhaul and reselling of Internet access), businesses, and governments.
Here is a pre-launch preview from Everyday Astronaut.
