Airbus, OneWeb aim to kick off new satellite era with first launch

A successful launch could mark a new era in the satellite services industry, with companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX, LeoSat Enterprises, and Canada's Telesat enabling data networks with hundreds or even thousands of tiny satellites that orbit closer to Earth than traditional communications satellites - a radical shift made possible by leaps in laser technology and computer chips. The launch may presage a boom in demand for launch services, with a handful of venture-backed rocket companies developing smaller boosters to deploy the smaller satellites at lower cost. The Russia-built Soyuz rocket was set for liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana, at 6:37 p.m. (2137 GMT), carrying satellites made by the Airbus-OneWeb joint venture called OneWeb Satellites in Toulouse, France.