Russian rocket to send four British communications satellites into orbit from Guiana in 2018 - source
MOSCOW. May 1 (Interfax) - In 2018 Russia's Soyuz-ST-B carrier rocket will put in orbit four more O3b satellites made for the British company O3b Networks, a source in the space rocket industry told Interfax on Friday.
"The Soyuz-ST-B carrier rocket with the Fregat-MT upper stage will lift off in the first half of 2018 from the Guiana Space Centre in order to deliver into orbit an additional four O3B satellites," the source said.
Twelve such satellites have already been put in orbit by three Russian Soyuz rocket earlier, he recalled.
The Google company set up the satellite communications operator O3b Networks to provide communications services.
The O3b Networks communication system aims to provide high-speed Internet access for people living in the developing regions. Under the O3b project, satellites are placed into an average-height orbit around 8,000 kilometers from the Earth.
Unlike other telecommunications satellites currently on the geostationary orbit at the height of approximately 36,000 kilometers, O3b satellites deliver signal several times faster, which is crucial for organizing a good-quality voice communication and high-speed data transmission.
The Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre project is carried out under an intergovernmental agreement signed between Russia and France in November 2003. Roscosmos is responsible for the Russian part of the program, coordinating work with the domestic space rocket companies participating in the program (TsENKI, Progress Space Center and NPO Lavochkin).