Eight OneWeb telecoms satellites, launched atop the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket on Friday, successfully separated from the Fregat upper stage, Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos said, Trend reports citing TASS.
"The first group of four OneWeb satellites separated from the Fregat booster," Roscosmos said in a Twitter post.
Later, the corporation’s Director General Dmitry Rogozin said another group of four satellites had separated as well.
The Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with 36 OneWeb satelliltes was launched from the Vostochny space center in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur region at 20:38 Moscow time on Friday. The satellites will separate in several stages, with the entire process taking 3 hours and 51 minutes.