OneWeb is planning to raise roughly £3 billion to expand its satellite constellation with a second generation of spacecraft that could provide navigation and positioning services.
Partly owned by the UK government, OneWeb currently operates 428 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) at about 1,200 km altitude. The company expects to grow the constellation to 648 satellites by the end of 2023.
OneWeb already offers broadband speeds above 100 Mbps and latencies under 100 ms, which support many consumer and enterprise applications. However, its current coverage and overall performance remain smaller in scale than rivals such as Starlink, which operates a constellation of more than 2,300 satellites.
Regulatory approval exists for OneWeb to deploy up to 2,000 satellites in total. Of those, about 1,280 will be second-generation satellites designed to operate in medium Earth orbit (MEO).
Satellites in MEO typically orbit around 8,500 km and therefore do not achieve the same ultra-low latencies as LEO satellites. Instead, MEO platforms can be optimized for higher-capacity transfers and robust navigation and positioning functionality, making them well suited to complement LEO constellations.
The UK government has a strong interest in leveraging OneWeb’s development to strengthen national navigation capabilities, as international reliance on the decades-old Global Positioning System (GPS) and other legacy systems is increasingly being reassessed.
Following the UK’s departure from the EU, Britain lost full access to the EU’s Galileo system. Although the UK contributed financially and technically to Galileo’s development, EU rules restricting the sharing of sensitive and military-related capabilities with non-EU states have limited UK participation.
The UK space sector is substantial: in 2020 it generated around £16.5 billion in revenue and supported roughly 47,000 jobs. Despite that success, the UK has historically depended on foreign launch providers.
To change that, several UK spaceports are planned or under development, and the UK has agreed a landmark partnership with the US to expand launch capabilities domestically. These facilities aim to capture more of the launch and satellite servicing value chain within the UK.
Melissa Thorpe, CEO of Spaceport Cornwall, told Express that OneWeb is a UK company and that the spaceport aims to support UK-based satellite manufacturers. She said the point of creating a UK spaceport is to service the national satellite industry and to keep more of the launch activity onshore.
A launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying 36 OneWeb satellites had been scheduled for March, but geopolitical events intervened. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Roscosmos declined to proceed with launches unless OneWeb and the UK government met conditions — including a demand that the UK sell its stake in OneWeb and guarantees that the satellites would not be used for military purposes.
The UK government found those demands unacceptable and refused to divest its investment. OneWeb’s board subsequently suspended all launches from Baikonur. Roscosmos has stated it will not return funds already invested in the planned launches prior to the conflict.
OneWeb’s second-generation satellites are expected to incorporate stronger navigation and positioning capabilities intended to compete with services such as Galileo. Combined with new UK launch infrastructure, they could help advance the UK’s ambition to become a leading European hub for space activity.
To realize those ambitions, OneWeb needs substantial additional funding.
According to reports, OneWeb is working with the UK Export Finance (UKEF) and a comparable US export credit agency to arrange financing from a syndicate of banks. Separately, French operator Eutelsat has proposed a £4.6 billion merger offer intended to complete OneWeb’s network by 2030, though that proposal must clear regulatory review and secure approval from some hesitant shareholders.
OneWeb plans to reveal detailed plans for its second-generation network—including specific capabilities and timelines—soon.
(Image Credit: OneWeb)
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