With 34 new satellites launched this weekend by a Soyuz rocket, the OneWeb telecommunications constellation now has 288 spacecraft in orbit.
That is almost half of the 650 planned.
SpaceX's American competitor, Starlink, has already launched a staggering number of 1,740 satellites since 2018. This is nearly 15% of all satellites launched since 1957!
Read also
The strange accident of a Chinese satellite
And it is not finished since the second generation foresees 30,000 new satellites.
This rapid increase in the number of objects in orbit, with other giant constellation projects in the pipeline, obviously worries specialists.
Hugh Lewis, of the English University of Southampton estimates that nearly half of the 3,800 collision alerts (trajectories that come closer to less than 1 kilometer) weekly are already linked to Starlink satellites.
OneWeb Constellation
A multiplication that has forced SpaceX to do no less than 2,219 remote maneuvers with its satellites for six months.
A number that can only
This article is for subscribers only.
You have 59% left to discover.
Pushing back the limits of science is also freedom.
Keep reading your article for € 1 for 2 months
I ENJOY IT
Already subscribed? Log in
