India’s GSLV-Mark3 rocket launches 36 OneWeb satellites
India’s GSLV-Mark3 rocket, its most powerful, has successfully placed 36 OneWeb satellites into orbit. As of this writing, the first 16 of the 36 satellites had successfully deployed.
This was the first international commercial launch for the GSLV rocket, previously used exclusively for Indian launches. It was also the first launch of OneWeb satellites since its deal with Russia was broken off due to the Ukraine war. Though the company had also quickly signed SpaceX to resume launches, I suspect that since half of OneWeb is owned by a major Indian investment company, India was given favored treatment in determining who would launch first.
This was the third successful launch in 2022 for India, the most since that country shut down in 2020 due to its panic over the Wuhan flu.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race remains unchanged:
48 SpaceX
45 China
16 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise still leads China 68 to 45, though it now trails the world combined 70 to 68.
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India’s GSLV-Mark3 rocket, its most powerful, has successfully placed 36 OneWeb satellites into orbit. As of this writing, the first 16 of the 36 satellites had successfully deployed.
This was the first international commercial launch for the GSLV rocket, previously used exclusively for Indian launches. It was also the first launch of OneWeb satellites since its deal with Russia was broken off due to the Ukraine war. Though the company had also quickly signed SpaceX to resume launches, I suspect that since half of OneWeb is owned by a major Indian investment company, India was given favored treatment in determining who would launch first.
This was the third successful launch in 2022 for India, the most since that country shut down in 2020 due to its panic over the Wuhan flu.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race remains unchanged:
48 SpaceX
45 China
16 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise still leads China 68 to 45, though it now trails the world combined 70 to 68.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Another way of looking at this is that an investor in OneWeb called in a favor to get put at the head of the queue for a GSLV launch. Meanwhile there is a normal business queue at SpaceX.
SpaceX is quoting some nice prices. but I bet that if you want to get a launch scheduled in under 30 days it is going to cost a premium.
George C opined “. . . but I bet that if you want to get a launch scheduled in under 30 days it is going to cost a premium.”
I would say that if it is possible to schedule a payload launch to orbit in under 30 days, assuming the usual i’s dotted and t’s crossed, (and I have no knowledge, here), American enterprise leads the world, period.