British government invests $500 million in OneWeb to build its own global navigation satellite system

The Verge reported that the British government announced on Friday that it would invest $500 million to acquire a "significant stake" in OneWeb, a space exploration company, as part of a consortium including Indian telecom company Bharti Global. OneWeb, based in the UK, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in March after failing to obtain financing. As part of the transaction, Bharti Global will also invest $500 million.

OneWeb is one of several companies working on the space internet project, which uses a combination of low-altitude satellites to send internet connections to ground terminals on the Earth's surface. The British government said in a statement that the agreement reached with the UK on Friday will allow OneWeb to complete the construction of the satellite constellation, "making the UK a world leader in science, research and development." British Business Secretary Alok Sharma said the deal "provides an opportunity to further develop our strong advanced manufacturing base in the UK." In 2018, the UK left the European Union and lost access to the EU's Galileo satellite system, while plans to build its own global navigation satellite system were also shelved due to cost considerations.

OneWeb said in a statement on Friday that it was looking to resume operations as quickly as possible.

However, the news of the agreement with OneWeb was criticized by some British space experts. The Guardian pointed out that OneWeb's satellites are in low Earth orbit, but most other countries' GPS systems are in medium Earth orbit. The deal is still subject to approval by US regulators and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.