Soyuz

NASA filed a 2019-02-13 procurement intent to buy two Soyuz seats from the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos to ensure U.S. presence on the station into 2020.

The first six OneWeb satellites were launched on 2019-02-27 aboard a Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.

The Soyuz rocket deployed the first two OneWeb satellites 63 minutes after a 4:37 p.m. Eastern liftoff.

The four OneWeb satellites withdrawn from the 2019-02-27 Soyuz mission could launch 2019 with Virgin Orbit.

NASA planned to stand down from additional Crew Dragon launch attempts until after the 2019-03-14 Soyuz launch carrying three new ISS crewmembers.

OneWeb’s first six satellites are scheduled to launch 2019-02-26 on an Arianespace Soyuz rocket from French Guiana.

NASA’s last Soyuz seat contract signed in 2015 covered Soyuz seats on missions to the ISS through 2018.

In late 2016 NASA officials said it was too late to contract directly with Roscosmos for Soyuz seats because of the multi-year lead time required.

Three of the five Soyuz seats purchased from Boeing in 2017 were reserved for transporting crews to the ISS in 2019 as a hedge against commercial crew delays.

Two of the five Soyuz seats purchased from Boeing were used to augment the NASA crew on the ISS in 2017 and 2018.

NASA considered one Soyuz seat on a mission launching in the fall of 2019 and another on a mission launching in the spring of 2020.

NASA regularly bought Soyuz seats from Roscosmos in the post-shuttle era while developing commercial crew vehicles.

In 2017 NASA agreed to buy five Soyuz seats from Boeing that Boeing had obtained as part of an agreement with RSC Energia.

The first six OneWeb satellites are set to launch on an Arianespace Soyuz from French Guiana later 2019-02.

Arianespace’s next launch is a Soyuz mission from French Guiana carrying the first six low-Earth-orbit broadband satellites for OneWeb, tentatively planned for 2019-02-22.

About 1,000 personnel are flown in from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to support a Soyuz launch at Vostochny.

Vostochny’s Soyuz launch complex uses a 1,600-ton mobile service tower to service rockets on the pad.

GK Launch Services is a Roscosmos subsidiary created to sell and operate commercial launches of Soyuz-2 rockets from Vostochny and other Russian launch sites.