Satellite megaconstellation company OneWeb should emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy “any day now,” a company executive said Nov. 18, its business plan validated by a growing demand for broadband connectivity, SpaceNews.com reported. During a Washington Space Business Roundtable webinar, Ruth Pritchard-Kelly, vice president for regulatory affairs at OneWeb, said that the company was wrapping up paperwork to allow it to formally exit the bankruptcy protection it filed for in March. A federal court approved last month the sale of the company to an ownership group led by Bharti Global and the British government. Since the Oct. 2 decision by a federal court approving the sale, OneWeb has been wrapping up paperwork to close the sale and formally exit chapter 11. That included an Oct. 27 approval by the Federal Communications Commission to transfer OneWeb’s satellite and ground station licenses to its new owners. OneWeb is preparing to resume satellite launches. The company this week flew a set of 36 satellites from its factory near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia. Those satellites will launch on a Soyuz rocket there in December as part of a revised launch contract with Arianespace announced in September.
