OneWeb wants to rebuild the Internet in space, connecting billions not on the Web. Can it succeed?

Though backed by heavy-hitting investors, the company’s mission is a risky one.

Greg Wyler was visiting the satellite operations center, located improbably in a Tysons, Va., high-rise, to pump up the team, to tell them the moment has come. Smiling and radiating a childlike energy, Wyler gushed earlier this month that the system they’ve built is “amazing,” that they are “going to democratize space.”

“It’s a huge step forward for space, a step forward for the world,” he said to applause.

By Christian Davenport