OneWeb files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

theverge.com

2 pointsAYBABTME2 comments

I'm not sure what this means, they launched a set of satellite last Saturday and then they file for bankruptcy? Is it because SoftBank is pulling out due to the pandemic? Is the overall project going yo survive in some shape or form?

A rather sad outcome, I hope Amazon Kuiper will materialize so that there's some competition for SpaceX's Starlink. I think having more than one player in this space has been important in ensuring that _any_ of these constellation will come to fruition.

They need ~600 satellites in orbit to start offering service but they have only launched 74 so far. It sounds like a very risky business model to start launching before they had all the capital, but there are rumors that Softbank withdrew some pledged capital.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com