London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 08, 2025

OneWeb: UK rejects Russian demand to sell share in satellite firm

OneWeb: UK rejects Russian demand to sell share in satellite firm

The UK has rejected Russian demands for it to sell its share in internet firm OneWeb to allow a satellite launch.

A Soyuz rocket carrying 36 OneWeb satellites is on the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Russia's space agency Roscomos demanded guarantees the spacecraft would not be used for military purposes.

It then said it would not launch the rocket unless the UK sold its share in OneWeb - but business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng rejected this.

"There's no negotiation on OneWeb: the UK government is not selling its share," tweeted Mr Kwarteng.

The UK government, which has come under pressure to pull the launch because of the war in Ukraine in any case, said it was continuing to discuss the situation with its partners on the OneWeb board.

OneWeb itself has made few public comments in recent days, although the BBC understands this was because it wanted the space to remove its personnel from the Baikonur launch complex. This it has now done.

UK taxpayers helped buy OneWeb out of bankruptcy in 2020 with a £400m stake.

In an interview with Russia 24 TV channel, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said the agency had contacted OneWeb and its partner Arianespace to demand "comprehensive legally binding guarantees" that the satellites would not be used for military purposes.

"If by 21:30 on March 4 we do not receive confirmation, the rocket will be removed from the launch pad and the satellites will be sent to the assembly and test building," he added.

The launch is currently timed for 22:41 GMT on Friday (03:41 local, Saturday).


According to Russian news agency TASS, Mr Rogozin said the OneWeb contract had been paid in full and the funds would not be returned.

"We received all the money for it for the manufacture of launch vehicles, upper-stages and for the necessary launch services.

"This money, due to force majeure circumstances that have arisen as a result of the aggressive policy of the West and the sanctions that are applied against Russia, this money will remain in Russia," the Roscosmos boss stated.

The space agency's twitter feed later went a step further, demanding the "hostile" UK government withdraw its shareholding from the London-headquartered company.

Mr Rogozin posted a video showing pad workers at Baikonur covering over the flags of the UK, US and Japan from the fairing of Friday's rocket.


Neither OneWeb nor the UK government will be taking direction from Mr Rogozin. His demands are impossible. The UK and US militaries want to use OneWeb, and ever since British taxpayers took a share in the company post-bankruptcy the talk has been about adding further defence and security capabilities to future OneWeb satellites.

Low-Earth orbiting broadband internet constellations present an emerging challenge for authoritarian regimes. While they can simply turn off terrestrial networks to control the flow of information, this is much harder to achieve with space infrastructure.

The numbers of satellites in these new constellations, and the speed at which they move across the sky, make them hard to jam.

US entrepreneur Elon Musk this week shipped antenna terminals to Ukraine to allow citizens there to use his Starlink broadband system.

At the moment, most of Ukraine would not be able to plug into OneWeb because much of the country is too far south for its signals. Future launches planned by OneWeb would ultimately though have filled in this gap.

Former UK government adviser Dominic Cummings, widely regarded as the official who persuaded Prime Minister Boris Johnson to buy into OneWeb, tweeted at the weekend that a situation such as that in Ukraine was in their minds when making the investment.

OneWeb has just a handful of launches left to complete its network of 648 satellites.

All of the missions are booked on Russian Soyuz vehicles that are scheduled to fly out of Baikonur in the coming months.

With the existing spacecraft it has in orbit (428), the company can deliver broadband internet connections to locations above 50 degrees North, which includes business customers such as BT in the UK, but it needs those additional satellites if it wants to run a truly global service.

Regions important to the company's prospects, including the rest of Europe, most of the US, Africa and Asia, will be left out without the final set of launches.

What happens next is anyone's guess, but a flight to orbit on Friday now seems highly unlikely.

OneWeb's launch contract is with France-based Arianespace. It markets Soyuz vehicles to the world.

Following its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020, OneWeb paid Arianespace upfront to organise all its launches.

Then there is the issue of the 36 satellites currently sitting on top of the Soyuz in Baikonur. They are the property of OneWeb.

They were manufactured in Florida in the US and their handling is therefore subject to strict American export controls covering sensitive technologies. These regulations would have seen the satellites' shipment to Kazakhstan and attachment to the Soyuz rocket overseen by a US official. That official is also no longer present at the spaceport.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Court Staff Cover Up Banksy Image of Judge Beating a Protester
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
Generations Born After 1939 Unlikely to Reach Age One Hundred, New Study Finds
End to a four-year manhunt in New Zealand: the father who abducted his children to the forests was killed, the three siblings were found
Germany Suspends Debt Rules, Funnels €500 Billion Toward Military and Proxy War Strategy
EU Prepares for War
BMW Eyes Growth in China with New All‑Electric Neue Klasse Lineup
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Brand-New $1 Million Yacht Sinks Just Fifteen Minutes After Maiden Launch in Turkey
Here’s What the FBI Seized in John Bolton Raid — and the Legal Risks He Faces
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Queen Camilla’s Teenage Courage: Fended Off Attempted Assault on London Train, New Biography Reveals
Scottish Brothers Set Record in Historic Pacific Row
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
×