SpaceX will begin launching OneWeb satellites. He turns into the worst competitor when Russia begins to retreat.

OneWeb, which aims to launch a network to send Internet from satellites to Earth, announced yesterday that it has signed an agreement with SpaceX to start launching the company’s satellites. So far, OneWeb has enlisted the help of Russia’s Roscosmos to launch its satellites. However, OneWeb was forced to terminate this cooperation after Roskosmos made what were considered unreasonable demands to continue launching the company’s satellites.

OneWeb is mostly owned by the UK and Indian company Bharti Global. To continue launching OneWeb’s satellites, Roscosmos demanded that Britain sell its stake in the company and that OneWeb assure Russia that the company’s services would not be used in military operations. These were requirements that OneWeb could not accept, and they then had to find a new supplier to launch their satellites.

Companies launching large amounts of satellites into space are usually not found in a jiffy. SpaceX is really the only company with the potential to do this in the near future, which is something OneWeb has turned to. It may not have been a particularly attractive alternative to OneWeb because SpaceX also operates Starlink, OneWeb’s largest competitor. However, OneWeb seems to have realized that SpaceX was the best option, and perhaps the only one. Commenting on the new collaboration with SpaceX, CEO Neil Masterson says:

“We thank SpaceX for their support, which reflects our shared vision of the limitless possibilities of space. With these launch plans in place, we are on track to finish building our entire fleet of satellites and deliver strong, fast, and secure connectivity around the world.”

OneWeb and SpaceX aim to begin launching OneWeb satellites later this year. At present, OneWeb has launched 428 of the 648 satellites planned to be the network’s initial constellation.