OneWeb leaves Baikonur Cosmodrome after Roscosmos imposes conditions for internet satellite launch
OneWeb, a UK-based company active in the satellite internet services industry – has suspended all launches from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and ordered its staff to leave the cosmodrome. The company was supposed to launch several internet satellites on a Soyuz rocket, on 4 March. But on 2 March, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos announced it would only go ahead with the launch if OneWeb guarantees that the satellite would not be used for military purposes and the UK government divest its stake in the company. The response of the UK government was that ‘there’s no negotiation on OneWeb: the UK Government is not selling its share’.
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