India launches 36 OneWeb satellites
India’s space agency ISRO tonight successfully launched 36 OneWeb satellites using its LVM-M3 rocket, the largest version of its GSLV family of rockets.
This launch completes OneWeb’s constellation, with 618 satellites now in orbit, allowing them to now offer internet access worldwide in competition with Starlink. After Russia broke its contract and confiscated 36 OneWeb satellites, the company contracted SpaceX and ISRO to launch the satellites necessary to complete the constellation, with SpaceX doing three launches and ISRO two.
This was India’s second launch in 2023. The leaders in the 2023 launch race remain the same:
20 SpaceX
11 China
5 Russia
3 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads China 23 to 11 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 23 to 19. SpaceX by itself now trails the entire world, including other American companies, 20 to 22.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
India’s space agency ISRO tonight successfully launched 36 OneWeb satellites using its LVM-M3 rocket, the largest version of its GSLV family of rockets.
This launch completes OneWeb’s constellation, with 618 satellites now in orbit, allowing them to now offer internet access worldwide in competition with Starlink. After Russia broke its contract and confiscated 36 OneWeb satellites, the company contracted SpaceX and ISRO to launch the satellites necessary to complete the constellation, with SpaceX doing three launches and ISRO two.
This was India’s second launch in 2023. The leaders in the 2023 launch race remain the same:
20 SpaceX
11 China
5 Russia
3 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads China 23 to 11 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 23 to 19. SpaceX by itself now trails the entire world, including other American companies, 20 to 22.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Speaking of launch cadence, Elon tweeted out an interesting response to the success of launch #20 yesterday:
“20 launches done, 70+ for rest of year”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1639396253896257536
It’s unclear if this only speaks to Falcon launches, or if it includes Starship, too.
“90 plus” might be a little short of his announced goal of 100 this year, but it will still utterly lap the field. They really have become the juggernaut. Where will they be five years from now?
Appreciate the “in orbit” nomenclature. It’s a bit nostalgic since I’ve felt slightly alienated over all the talk about being exclusively “on orbit” during recent decades….
Michael McNeil,
The way my colleagues and I have always used the terms “in orbit” and “on orbit” is that one of our satellites was “on orbit” once it was in the correct place and was actively stationkeeping. “On orbit” and “on station” seemed synonymous.
I used to build geostationary commercial communication satellites. So, as we watched one of our satellites launch (even before YouTube, launch companies often provided live coverage, similar to what we see with the commercial launchers today), once the upper stage was in its temporary parking orbit, the satellite had made it “to orbit.” Once the stack reached the equator and the upper stage performed its second burn and released the satellite into geostationary transfer orbit, the satellite was still “in orbit” but had not yet reached its designated location in geostationary orbit. As with today’s broadcasts, television coverage ended with the release of the satellite, because the launch company had done its job, and the rest was up to the satellite to perform correctly.
Retired geostationary satellites are raised to a higher orbit before being shut down, keeping them in orbit but no longer on station.
ISRO deserves every ounce of appreciation here. Getting goosebumps everywhere. What a proud moment. Bravo ISRO