Russia’s Rassvet aims to compete with Starlink, but faces difficulties in orbit

Russia is trying to create a rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink through Rassvet, a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit. The objective is to build a network that ensures fast and stable communications, including for military needs.

The importance of such a system has become particularly evident in the war in Ukraine, where Starlink is used for communications, command and control, and for directing drones. The conflict has shown that satellite communications are essential in modern warfare, especially for the real-time transmission of data and video. In contrast, traditional military systems are built primarily for voice communication and struggle to process large amounts of information.

Analyst Jakub Janovsky assesses that this has made Starlink and similar platforms almost indispensable for modern armies. The Rassvet project is being developed by the Russian company Bureau 1440, which launched its first satellites in 2023.

However, the implementation of the program has been accompanied by technical problems. Of the 16 satellites in the first Rassvet-3 group, one burned up during re-entry into the atmosphere, while the others remained in orbits below the planned altitude of 800 kilometers. The second group, consisting of 16 satellites and launched in July, is also showing difficulties. Some of them have lost altitude and may not become operational.

Space expert Anatoly Zak calls the number of failures concerning. He has also raised doubts about the ability of the propulsion systems to place the satellites into the intended orbit.