Soyuz has lifted off from the Spaceport in French Guiana, carrying the first six satellites in OneWeb’s constellation – which will be deployed during a sequence lasting 1 hour and 22 minutes from liftoff to final separation.

Payload lift performance for mission – which is designated Flight VS21 in Arianespace’s launcher family numbering system – is estimated at 1,945.2 kg.

After an initial powered phase of Soyuz’ three lower stages, the flight – designated VS21 in Arianespace’s numbering system – included two burns of the Fregat upper stage to place its passengers at their targeted deployment point.

The cluster of spacecraft – produced by the OneWeb Satellites joint venture of OneWeb and Airbus – was successfully deployed into a circular low Earth orbit on Arianespace’s first Soyuz mission of 2019 (and the launch services company’s second mission overall this year).