OneWeb has finished its initial satellite constellation buildout, as India and its space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), made its second orbital flight of 2023 by flying 36 of the company’s satellites aboard its LVM3 (previously known as the GSLV Mk III) launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The launch occurred on Sunday, March 26 at 03:30 UTC (9:00 AM IST). The LVM3 flew southward into a near-polar trajectory from the Second Launch Pad on Sriharikota Island in the Bay of Bengal, and the satellites are destined for a 1,200 km circular orbit inclined 86.4 degrees to the equator. This flight was the LVM3’s sixth overall flight and the second flight involving OneWeb payloads, after the successful OneWeb flight 14 launch in October 2022. The LVM3 is comparable to launchers like the Atlas V or Ariane 5, using liquid stages and a pair of large solid rocket boosters. The LVM3 uses two hypergolic-fueled Vikas engines on its L110 core stage, with two C200 solid rocket boosters mounted onto the stage. After the SRBs are jettisoned, the cryogenic upper stage separates from the core and powers the LVM’s payload to orbit. The upper stage, known…
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OneWeb completes initial constellation with launch from India
