Allegedly Cash-Strapped OneWeb Launches 34 New Satellites

A British communications company on a mission to "bring connectivity to everyone everywhere" successfully launched 34 new American-made satellites into space on March 21.

OneWeb's low-earth-orbit satellites were carried into space aboard a Soyuz launch vehicle that took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Saturday's launch⁠—the third to be successfully completed by the company⁠—brought the total number of active satellites being operated by OneWeb up to 74.

This latest space mission is part of OneWeb's plan to put 648 satellites into space to deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity globally by 2021. The company launched its first batch of satellites in 2019 and its second batch just weeks ago, on February 7.  

Adrian Steckel, CEO of OneWeb, said in February that the company was on track to deliver commercial services in the Arctic later this year. However, Bloomberg reported last week that OneWeb is encountering major financial difficulties and is considering filing for bankruptcy. 

Bloomberg said that OneWeb, which has the backing of SoftBank Group Corp., is struggling to remain afloat due to high costs, stiff competition, uncertain regulation, and the economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

OneWeb is headquartered in London but builds its satellites at a high-volume production factory in Florida, which as of Sunday evening had 1,007 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. 

Word of OneWeb's possible bankruptcy filing came to Bloomberg from "people with knowledge of the [bankruptcy] preparations" who ..

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