Mar 28, 2020 - Science

OneWeb files for bankruptcy amid coronavirus pandemic

Miriam Kramer

Bright lights illuminated on Earth seen from orbit at night. — Earth seen from orbit at night. Photo: NASA

OneWeb — a company that planned to bring high-speed internet to unconnected people around the world — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday.

Why it matters: OneWeb was a frontrunner in the increasingly competitive race to beam back high-speed broadband from space using large constellations of small satellites in low orbits.

Details: The company is planning to use the bankruptcy to pursue a sale, a statement from OneWeb reads.

According OneWeb, the company had a difficult time securing funding in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Our current situation is a consequence of the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis," OneWeb CEO Adrian Steckel said in the statement. "We remain convinced of the social and economic value of our mission to connect everyone everywhere. Today is a difficult day for us at OneWeb."
OneWeb — which has launched 74 satellites — sent its last batch of spacecraft to orbit on March 21.

The big picture: OneWeb's exit leaves SpaceX's Starlink constellation as the clear frontrunner in this portion of the space industry, with Amazon's Kuiper also on the horizon.

These companies think that constellations of small satellites could blanket the globe with internet, bringing millions of people online that currently have little or no access to high-speed internet.
Others worry that these large batches of satellites could clutter up space and even impair astronomers' ability to study the cosmos.

Go deeper: Bezos vs. Musk 2.0

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OneWeb files for bankruptcy amid coronavirus pandemic

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