OneWeb, a satellite internet company partly owned by the British government, has canceled an upcoming satellite launch using a Russian rocket and suspended all future launches that relied on Russia, the company announced on Thursday after a tense public standoff with Russia's space agency.
On Thursday, the company said it would stop selling rocket engines to American companies.
The Russian space agency will be isolated from its Western space partners and Russia's private space activities will be limited dramatically. OneWeb's loss of a reliable rocket provider for launches also poses novel challenges for the company, as it had intended to complete its constellation of
The British government and other investors saved OneWeb. It was going to launch 36 satellites on a Russian rocket. Since the beginning of the year, the company has sent roughly 400 satellites to space using the workhorse rocket, the Soyuz.
The space agency would not proceed with the satellite mission after the Russian space chief announced two conditions to counter the sanctions placed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The launchers at Baikonur decided that without the flags they wouldn't fly.
British officials and OneWeb shareholders decided Wednesday night to stop all future launches from Baikonur, the spaceport in Kazakhstan where Russia conducts most of its launches, after the space agency gave them an ultimatum three days before the previously planned launch. OneWeb's decision would plunge the company into another bankruptcy proceeding according to Mr. Rogozin.
The warning was dismissed by Chris McLaughlin, OneWeb's chief of government affairs.
He said in an interview that the company was well-funded and backed by powerful international shareholders.
Britain doesn't have the ability to launch large objects into the sky. Mr. McLaughlin said OneWeb would look at alternative launch providers in Japan, India and the United States.
We always keep an eye on the environment, but this is a completely new thing.
The company was saved from extinction in 2020 by India's Bharti Enterprises and Britain, which invested $500 million in the satellite operator. Without rockets to launch on, OneWeb's aim to complete its mega-constellation faces serious disruption. The Starlink constellation is competing with it to beam broadband internet to remote regions around the world.
British politicians were under pressure to follow energy companies in severing Russian business ties. The company had paid for its Russian launches in bulk through Arianespace, the French rocket company, and had six more missions remaining under the contract.
A OneWeb official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive business deliberations said that OneWeb is set to enter negotiations with Arianespace in the coming days to determine how to retrieve the money for the suspended Soyuz missions. The official said it was unclear to OneWeb executives when the satellites would come off the rocket or where they would be stored.
There is no quick fix for this problem, according to a satellite industry analyst.
Two years in advance is when the launch contracts of this size are typically signed.
A new launch provider will not be able to finish OneWeb's constellation by August as they had anticipated.
Russia's move to shut down one of its space agency's biggest commercial clients was the strongest example so far of how the war in Ukraine is spilling over into space.
The European Space Agency's only launch site is in French Guiana, where more than 80 Russian personnel were withdrawn last week. The joint robotic mission to Mars by the agency and Russia is very unlikely to go ahead on time. On Thursday, the Russian space agency said it would stop collaborating with Germany on space station research projects.
Victoria Samson, a space policy analyst at the Secure World Foundation, said that with the Western sanctions over the invasion, it was inevitable that Roscosmos would be isolated from its Western partners.
Russia's space agency is self-isolating, which is not encouraging. It is being done on their terms now.
The International Space Station is managed by NASA and the Russian government. The two partners had been talking about launching Russian astronauts on Crew Dragon, a vehicle that carries NASA astronauts.
Russia said on Thursday that it would stop selling rocket engines to American companies.
In a situation like this, we can't supply the United States with our world's best rocket engines.
The freeze may affect the use of Russian-made engines by the company that ferries cargo to the space station for NASA. This service is provided by both Japan and Russia.
Russia will no longer provide assistance in the use of a different Russian engine that was already purchased by the United Launch Alliance for Atlas 5, which is one of the most frequently used American rockets.
U.L.A.'s chief executive, Tory Bruno, played down the effect of the loss of technical aid from Russia.
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