Russia loses one of the satellites in its Rassvet constellation, billed as a Starlink rival
The Russian aerospace company Bureau 1440 has lost one of the 16 production satellites it launched into orbit in March 2026, according to spacecraft monitoring websites, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported.
Bureau 1440 confirmed the loss to the outlet, saying six experimental Rassvet-1 and Rassvet-2 spacecraft and 15 satellites from the first launch remain in low Earth orbit.
Journalist Anatoly Zak had reported the satellite loss as early as June 6.
On March 24, Bureau 1440 announced it had placed the first 16 production satellites of the Rassvet orbital communications constellation into orbit, calling the launch “a transition from experiments to building a communications service.”
Bureau 1440 is developing a low-Earth orbit satellite system — a Russian analogue to Starlink — for high-speed broadband data transmission. By the end of 2030, the constellation is expected to include 292 satellites, with a total of 383 planned for launch.
The project to build Russia’s broadband satellite network is being financed as part of the national “Data Economy” program. It is expected to receive 102 billion rubles from the federal budget and 329 billion rubles from the company’s own funds.
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