TO BOLDLY GO

An astoundin mission to bring the internet to everyone on the planet is changing the way we think about mass production and procurement. Airbus Oneweb Satellites is shattering earthly bonds and long-held expectations about the linits of possibility.

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Every day, Airbus OneWeb Satellites (AOS) does the impossible. AOS is the manufacturer of the OneWeb Constellation, a network of hundreds and potentially thousands of small, low-Earth orbit satellites, bringing affordable high-speed internet access to everyone, everywhere. Formed as a joint venture between OneWeb, a British startup now majority owned and controlled by India’s Bharti Enterprises and the Government of the United Kingdom, and Airbus, the doyenne of global aerospace companies, AOS is the first company to apply serial production techniques to satellites at an industrial scale, setting a new paradigm in manufacturing and revolutionizing space procurement.

The satellites that AOS produce are smaller than traditional satellites, weighing just 150 kg (330 pounds) and manufactured at 1/50th the cost of a traditional unit. Incredibly, AOS’s production flow is geared to produce up to two satellites a day, with significant surge capacity built in, whereas traditional satellite production was measured in years.

Over 110 satellites have been launched to date, and the remainder are scheduled to be in space and operational by 2022. Between 32-36 satellites are launched at a time on a single rocket that carries them to a low-Earth orbit of approximately 1,200 km (745 miles).

The satellites were designed, and the first models were built, in AOS’s facility in Toulouse, France. In 2019, AOS shifted to full serial production at its 100,000-sq-ft stateof-the-art manufacturing facility located next to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.