OneWeb, a satellite Internet company partially owned by the British government, has canceled an upcoming satellite launch of a Russian rocket and stopped all future launches that rely on Russia, the company said Thursday after intense public opposition to Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency.
Also Thursday, Roscosmos announced it would stop selling rocket engines to US companies.
These moves, both the results of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, mean further isolating the Russian space agency from its Western space partners and drastically curtailing Russia’s private space activities. The loss of OneWeb, a reliable supplier of rocket launchers, also poses new challenges for the company, as it aimed to complete its group of 648 satellites in orbit later this year.
OneWeb was saved from bankruptcy in 2020 by the British government and other investors. It is planned to launch 36 satellites aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan on Friday. The company has sent about 400 satellites into orbit since 2019, each time using the Soyuz, a worker rocket that has been active since the days of the Cold War space race.
But on Wednesday, just after the Soyuz came to the site before its launch, Russia’s space chief Dmitry Rogozin announced two conditions aimed at countering sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine: The space agency will not continue with a satellite mission, unless the UK withdraws its multibillion-dollar stake in OneWeb and the company provides “a guarantee that its satellites will not be used for military purposes”.
Mr. Rogozin too posted a video on Twitter showing Roscosmos personnel on a platform next to the rocket, covering British, American and Japanese flags decorated on the outside of the rocket. “The Baikonur launchers decided that without the flags of some countries, our rocket would look more beautiful,” said Mr Rogozin, a former deputy prime minister who often makes bombastic remarks on social media.
The space agency’s ultimatum that came just three days before the planned launch, sparked urgent discussions between British officials and OneWeb shareholders, who decided on Wednesday night to suspend all future launches from Baikonur, the spaceport in Kazakhstan where Russia makes most of its launches. Mr Rogozin suggested on Twitter that OneWeb’s decision would throw the company into a new bankruptcy proceeding.
Chris McLaughlin, OneWeb’s chief of government, dismissed the warning.
“This is an incredibly well-financed debt-free company, backed by powerful international shareholders who made the decision themselves,” he said in an interview.
Britain does not have its own ability to launch large payloads into orbit. Mr McLaughlin said OneWeb would look for alternative suppliers in Japan, India and the United States.
“We always keep an eye on the middle of the starter, but this is something completely new and unprecedented,” said Mr McLaughlin.
The company was saved from bankruptcy in 2020 by India’s Bharti Enterprises, OneWeb’s largest shareholder, and Britain, whose $ 500 million public investment in the satellite operator was aimed at boosting Britain’s space economy. Without launch rockets, OneWeb’s goal of completing its mega-constellation faces serious disruption. It competes with SpaceX’s Starlink constellation to broadcast broadband to remote regions of the world.
OneWeb has already faced pressure from British politicians to follow energy companies in severing Russian business ties. The company has paid for its Russian launches in bulk through Arianespace, the French missile company, and has six more missions left under the contract – a launch line that probably costs hundreds of millions of dollars.
In the coming days, OneWeb is ready to begin talks with Arianespace to determine how, if possible, to raise money for the Union’s suspended missions, according to a OneWeb spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive business discussions. which is not authorized to disclose. The official added that it is not clear to OneWeb executives when or how the 36 satellites currently in Russia for Friday’s canceled mission will come out of the rocket or where these satellites will be stored while OneWeb searches for another launch provider. .
Updated
March 3, 2022, 8:31 pm ET
“There is no quick fix to this problem,” said Caleb Henry, a satellite analyst at Quilty Analytics. “They have money to find new launches, it’s just a huge inconvenience to do so.”
Mr Henry added that start-up contracts of this size are usually signed two years in advance.
“OneWeb expected to complete its group by August, so this will not be possible with a new startup provider,” he said.
Russia’s move to hamper the business of one of its space agency’s biggest trading clients has been perhaps the strongest example to date of Ukraine’s war in space, an area where the country has been cooperating with countries for decades. who were once her Cold War opponents.
Last week, Roscosmos withdrew more than 80 Russian officials from French Guiana, where the European Space Agency has its only launch site and flies on Union trade missions. ESA said at the time that the agency’s joint robotic mission to Mars, which is expected to launch later this year, is now “very unlikely” to continue on time. And on Thursday, Roscosmos said it would stop collaborating with Germany on joint space station research projects.
The war between Russia and Ukraine: key things you need to know
Map 1 of 4
A Ukrainian city is falling. Russian troops gained control of Kherson, the first city to be conquered during the war. Overtaking Kherson is important because it allows the Russians to control much of Ukraine’s southern coast and push west toward the city of Odessa.
With the accumulation of Western sanctions over the invasion, the isolation of Roscosmos from its Western partners seemed inevitable, said Victoria Samson, a space policy analyst at the Secure World Foundation.
“It is not encouraging that the Russian space agency is isolating itself,” she said. “Perhaps it is Russia that is accelerating the death of ties, which could happen in time anyway. But now it is done under their conditions. “
NASA, which co-operates the International Space Station with Roscosmos, has said it intends to continue cooperating with its Russian counterparts. The two partners negotiated an agreement to launch Russian astronauts on Crew Dragon, a SpaceX vehicle that transports NASA astronauts.
In addition to cooperating with NASA, Russia said Thursday it would stop selling rocket engines to US companies.
“In a situation like this, we cannot supply the United States with our best rocket engines in the world,” Mr Rogozin told Russian state television. “Let them fly on something else, on their brooms, I don’t know what.
The freeze could hit Northrop Grumman the hardest, using Russian engines for its Antares launch vehicle, which transports cargo to NASA’s space station. SpaceX also provides this service to the space station, as well as spacecraft launched from Japan and Russia.
In a more symbolic move, Mr Rogozin said Russia would no longer provide assistance in using a different Russian engine, which had already been purchased and used by the United Launch Alliance for the Atlas 5, one of the most widely used US missiles.
ULA CEO Tori Bruno downplayed the effect of Russia’s loss of technical assistance, saying: “We can do without it if necessary.