Watch live Saturday: Arianespace Soyuz rocket launching 34 OneWeb internet satellites at 6:13 pm ET

The European launch provider Arianespace will use a Soyuz rocket to launch 34 satellites into orbit for the OneWeb internet constellation on Saturday (Aug. 21).

The mission, called OneWeb 9, is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, at 6:13 p.m. EDT (2213 GMT; 3:13 a.m. on Aug. 22 Baikonur time). You can watch it live in the window above, courtesy of Arianespace, or directly via the company’s YouTube page.

An earlier launch attempt on Thursday (Aug. 19) was aborted “due to a non-nominal event during the final automatic sequence,” Arianespace representatives wrote in an update. Arianespace had first rescheduled to launch for Friday but then pushed it to Saturday.

“Upon the request of OneWeb, Arianespace has decided to postpone the launch for 24 hours to allow for additional time for mission planning preparation linked to the updated lift-off,” Arianespace officials said in a statement.

From Arianespace:

Arianespace’s eighth launch of 2021 with the fifth Soyuz of the year will place its satellite passengers into low Earth orbit. The launcher will be carrying a total payload of approximately 5,518 kg.

The launch will be performed from Baikonur, in Kazakhstan.

OneWeb #255 To #288

Flight ST34, the 29th commercial mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan performed by Arianespace and its Starsem affiliate, will put 34 of OneWeb’s satellites bringing the total fleet to 288 satellites into a near-polar orbit at an altitude of 450 kilometers. After separation, the satellites will raise themselves to their operational orbit.

OneWeb’s mission is to bring internet everywhere to everyone, by creating a global connectivity platform through a next generation satellite constellation in low Earth orbit. OneWeb’s constellation of 650 satellites will deliver high-speed, low-latency enterprise grade connectivity services to a wide range of customer sectors including enterprise, government, maritime and aviation customers. Central to its purpose, OneWeb seeks to bring connectivity to every unconnected area where fiber cannot reach, and thereby bridge the digital divide. Once deployed, the OneWeb constellation will enable user terminals that are capable of offering 3G, LTE, 5G and Wi-Fi coverage, providing high-speed access globally – by air, sea and land.

In 2021, the company is focused on scaling the satellite constellation to launch commercial services starting at the end of 2021 to the UK, Alaska, Canada, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, and the Arctic Seas.

• With Flight ST34, Arianespace will put in orbit a total of 421 spacecraft from Airbus Defence and Space (including OneWeb Satellites – a joint-venture between OneWeb and Airbus Defence and Space founded in 2016). The Arianespace backlog of payloads remaining to be launched for Airbus Defence and Space (excluding the remaining OneWeb satellites) counts 18 additional payloads.
• The first eight OneWeb missions carrying 254 satellites were successfully orbited by Arianespace.

RUAG Space AB (Linköping, Sweden) is the prime contractor in charge of development and production of the dispenser system used on Flight ST34. It will carry the satellites during their flight to low Earth orbit and then release them into space. The dedicated dispenser is designed to accommodate up to 36 spacecraft per launch, allowing Arianespace to timely deliver the lion’s share of the initial OneWeb constellation.