SpaceX to launch 20 Eutelsat OneWeb broadband satellites to space on Oct. 20

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a black and white rocket launches into a darkening evening sky

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the OneWeb 1 mission on Dec. 8, 2022. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX plans to send a set of internet satellites to orbit for another company early Sunday morning (Oct. 20).

SpaceX plans to launch the last batch of Eutelsat OneWeb's V1 satellites from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday at 1:13 a.m. EDT (0513 GMT; 10:13 p.m. on Oct. 19 local California time).

You can watch the live broadcast via SpaceX's stream on X, formerly Twitter.

If all goes to plan, roughly eight minutes after launch, the Falcon 9's first stage will return to Earth at Vandenberg's Landing Zone 4.

Eutelsat OneWeb's most recent launch with SpaceX, on May 20, 2023, brought the company's constellation to 634 satellites. At the time, Eutelsat OneWeb said the new batch of 16 satellites would be enough to take their services global.

"OneWeb is on track to deliver global coverage this year and is already in the process of scaling services for customers around the world," company officials stated at the time. (The company was then known as OneWeb; the merger with Eutelsat occurred in September 2023.)

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"With the addition of the satellites deployed from this launch, OneWeb will increase the resiliency and redundancy in the constellation as it expands services to its growing base of enterprise and government customers."

Previous to that effort, SpaceX sent three sets of OneWeb satellites aloft in sets of 40 spacecraft each.

SpaceX's agreement to launch Eutelsat OneWeb satellites dates to March 2022, after the latter company pivoted from an agreement to use Russian-built Soyuz rockets through the French company Arianespace.

Shortly after Russia's unsanctioned invasion of Ukraine, Russian federal space agency Roscosmos said it would not launch 36 OneWeb satellites then mounted on a Soyuz rocket unless the company met two conditions.

Those conditions were that the spacecraft would not be used for military purposes, and the United Kingdom would divest itself from the company's investors. OneWeb did not accede and the Soyuz was rolled off the launch pad at the Roscosmos-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, replete with the satellites.

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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace

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