Pierre Lionnet, Research & Managing Director at ESD Eurospace, says that Russia is planning to launch 900 satellites into low Earth orbit and to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The system, called Rassvet (or perhaps Rassviett) already has six craft in orbit. Lionnet says the satellites are built by a newcomer in the sector, Byuro 1440 or B1440 (perhaps an homage to the 1440 orbits of the Sputnik satellite). Founded in 2020 B1440 is one of the few solid new players in the Russian space sector. They claim 2000 employees to date.

The business model is similar to Starlink, where the company builds and owns the constellation, and sells the service directly to customers. Government customers are also listed, but civil/commercial applications are touted first.

Lionnet adds that the Russian company has ordered 20 Soyuz rockets to start launching the constellation.

Bureau 1440 has gone to the trouble of making a full English-language presentation of its plans, along with images of its 2000=strong team of engineers and technicians, and talks of offering a “global service”.

Russian space agency Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov in a statement in June said the first batch of 16 satellites would launch by the end of this year, with a commercial service beginning in 2027 from a fleet of more than 250 craft.

Rassvet is part of a broader Russian space development programme valued at 4.4 trillion rubles (€48.5bn) and endorsed by President Vladimir Putin last week.

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Satellite

Tags: russia, satellite