OneWeb satellite constellation in new ownership 2020

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Jul 31^st, 2020 at 4:38pm

I've just started this new discussion forum heading, hoping that people will find it a place where they can contribute and ask questions.

This first post is something of an experiment. I'm simply hoping that this message displays correctly and does not corrupt anything. I backed up the whole satellite internet forum first so if things do go wrong I can back out. If so most recent posting and new members may get deleted. I hope not.

29 July 2020: Hughes Network Systems (HNS), say they will put $50 million into the consortium of the UK govenment and Bharti to buy OneWeb out of bankruptcy.

HNS has been involved with OneWeb since 2015 when it invested $50 million in OneWeb in 2015, alongside Airbus Group, Bharti Enterprises, Coca-Cola, Intelsat, Qualcomm, Totalplay and the Virgin Group. That initial funding amounted to $500 million.

OneWeb raised $3.4 billion and launched 74 out of 648 small broadband satellites before filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2020.

The British government and Bharti placed the winning bid to acquire OneWeb in July 2020, with each agreeing to invest $500 million to revive the megaconstellation startup.

Hughes has been building earth station gateway antennas for OneWeb but the work is unfinished.

OneWeb is expected to offer satellite internet connections for Governments and business sites plus cellular backhaul needs and Wi-Fi hotspots for schools and communities.

I'm hoping visitors will add more content here about the history to date and how the system works. I must read up more myself !

Best regards, Eric

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Reply #1 - Aug 31^st, 2020 at 1:17pm

26 Aug 2020: The FCC has granted OneWeb‘s service access to the US market using 2,000 satellites with a V-band payload at a height of 8500km.

The 2000 satellites comprise: 720 Ku/Ka band satellites being upgraded with V band payload, plus 1280 additional satellites.

The launch and operation of these satellites will be at the discretion of the U.K. government, through which the application for orbit access is being processed.

Approval will be subject to review of OneWeb's plans for dealing with old end-of-life satellites so that space debris is mitigated.

For satellites in 1200km orbit, OneWeb intends to first lower the circular orbit to height of 1000km. (2 burns of deltaV approx 48m/s) plus a later transition to an orbit of 250 x 1000km (deltaV approx 199m/s), thus allowing for atmospheric drag at the lower end of the ellipse to gradually bring the satellites back into the atmosphere.

Recovering a satellite from 8500km down to 250km, needs more fuel, sufficient for deltaV approx 1113 m/s.

If anyone can calculate the deltaVs independently and confirm (or otherwise) my calculations I would be pleased to hear.

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Reply #2 - Sep 25^th, 2020 at 5:20pm

25 Sept 2020.

OneWeb is restarting launches with Arianespace, and aiming for the next launch in Dec 2020 with a batch of 36 satellites, bringing the total in-orbit to 110 satellites.

Commercial services are hoped to start by the end of 2021, with initial regions including: The United Kingdom, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic seas and Canada.

16 launches are planned with Arianespace to complete the deployment of the full global constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites (total 648) by the end of 2022.

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