American SpaceX launched 40 Internet satellites of the British company OneWeb into orbit.
This was reported by Space.com, Ukrinform reports.
The launch of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle took place Thursday evening from the spaceport in Florida.
All 40 Internet satellites were deployed in their planned orbits about an hour after launch.
OneWeb is building a “constellation” of more than 600 satellites in low Earth orbit that will provide Internet services to customers around the world.
There are currently 582 such satellites in space. Another launch of 40 satellites is planned, which will complete the “constellation”.
Most OneWeb satellites were launched on Russian-made Soyuz rockets operated by French Arianespace. But after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the deal was dissolved and OneWeb began looking for other ways to launch satellites.
Photo: SpaceX Twitter