UPDATED 8:53 AM ET Dec. 08, 2022 PUBLISHED 7:37 AM ET Dec. 08, 2022 PUBLISHED 7:37 AM EST Dec. 08, 2022 SHARE MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. — In the Shakespeare play, The Tempest, the King of Naples’ jester, Trinculo, while trapped in a storm and seeking shelter on an island, utters the now famous and often interpreted phrase, “… misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” What You Need To Know OneWeb Launch 15 marks the first of three missions with SpaceX as the launch provider Russia previously launched satellites for OneWeb's internet constellation prior to its invasion of Ukraine The satellites for the OneWeb internet constellation are manufactured at Airbus OneWeb Satellites on Merritt Island Thursday's planned launch will bring the OneWeb constellation to nearly 80% completion — Airbus OneWeb Satellites (@OneWebSatellit1) December 8, 2022 Neighbors launching neighbors The prospect of seeing their work launch from their backyard for the first time was exciting. Nevertheless, the notion of shifting their workflow at AOS, from dealing with one launch provider to now two different ones, was “quite a challenge,” according to Hinds. “And I really stress ‘the challenge.’ Normally, it takes a year-and-a-half. You have a lot of iterations where I could tell you what I can do, you can tell me what I can do in terms of that interface and we have to work together to actually come to a point of agreement,” Hinds said. On top of figuring out how to integrate their satellites onto the SpaceX and NSIL rockets, they had to go through the paces of demonstrating that all the minutiae, like mechanical and thermal systems, will work in concert with the rockets, he said. “I’ll be absolutely honest, at times you get frustrated, but you’ve got to see through that,” Hinds said. “It’s massive to actually see all of that work with the calculator, on paper, with discussion, actually manifesting itself into spacecraft in that launch cavity.” Hinds said a special thanks had to go to entities like the Kennedy Space Center (which will host the launch at Launch Complex 39A), Space Florida and the Economic Development Council of Florida’s Space Coast for their help in supporting the turnaround. “All these people have come together to make that dream, not only being a launch base, but to actually produce the items, which are launch, which I think was very much a part of their dream,” Hinds said. Thursday’s launch will be the first of three with SpaceX. The other two are planned for sometime in 2023. But while the constellation in LEO will become about 80% complete with OneWeb Launch 15, the manufacturing work for this constellation is just about done. But because the satellite manufactured by AOS is moldable to other missions, the factory isn’t coming to a halt by any means, though the pace of production is slowing a bit. “If you walk through the factory, like you did several months ago, you won’t see every single station busy, but you’ll see the back end of the factory busy, which is the last couple of steps to get spacecraft out of the door,” Hinds said. “But in addition, what we’re also doing is we’re looking at the capability for the future. So, we have already started looking at parts of the factory, which we can remodel, getting ready for that next and future contracts.” While he wasn’t able to disclose many details at this point, Hinds said that they AOS is working toward two more product lines at the facility. It is also working on integrating new propulsion systems from Astra. Astra has been selected by Airbus OneWeb Satellites to design and build spacecraft engines. The Astra Spacecraft Engine will be integrated into the portfolio of AOS Arrow commercial small satellites. Read more at https://t.co/gLUsCq86Fn. pic.twitter.com/6eMYChnnqf