Meet Rassvet, Russia’s answer to Starlink

In late March, The Russian company Bureau 1440 brought into low orbit the first 16 broadband Internet Satellites The new Rasvet constellation, which observers and local media have already called Russia’s answer to SpaceX’s Starlink. It is an ambitious global cyber project that experts say could hide much broader strategic goals, with functions including military control and communications.

The launch took place on March 23 at 8:24 PM Moscow time from the Plesetsk Military Cosmodrome using the Soyuz-2.1B launch pad, and marked the first step in building an infrastructure expected to contain at least 300 satellites by 2030.

“The launch represents the transition from the pilot phase to establishing a communications service,” Office 1440 said Announce On telegram. He added: “The Bureau 1440 team completed this path in 1,000 days, which is the time period between the launch of experimental satellites and production satellites.”

The goal of the project is to provide broadband Internet access with speeds up to 1 Gbps per user terminal and a signal response time of up to 70 milliseconds.

The system has been compared repeatedly Starlinkwhich proved that in the war in Ukraine Vital tool For troop communications. In fact, according to various ReportsKiev was able to disrupt the communications of some Russian units that relied on Starlink by imposing restrictions on unauthorized stations.

In this context, the Rasvet project appears to be an attempt to build a sovereign satellite infrastructure that can be used by civilians and military alike.

Shoot for it

The dual-use nature of the Rasvet project is also evident from some operational details. The satellites were not launched by the space agency Roscosmos but by the Russian Ministry of Defense through the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

A few days after its launch, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched it Named The launch of the new constellation is considered a “great event,” while Roscosmos director Dmitry Bakanov said that the base will be exposed to “attempted attacks” on the day of the launch.

“Like all communications satellites, they are also capable of performing military functions, and given the high effectiveness of using Starlink on the battlefield, Rasvet will also find use there,” says Vitaly Egorov, space expert and YouTube host. channel Otkrytyj Kosmos Zelenogo Kota, or the Open Universe of the Green Cat.

The size of Rasvet’s terminals — several times larger and heavier than those in Starlink — may cause some limitations on the network, Egorov says. “However, the fact that ‘special satellites’ of Rassvet were launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome shows the great interest that the Russian Ministry of Defense attaches to the success of this project. The Russian Ministry of Communications also allocates funds to the project, which means that the state is directly involved in the Rassvet project.”

The independent Russian press reported funding for Rassvet worth 100 billion rubles (about $1.34 billion) from the Russian Ministry of Communications, with the company poised to invest another 300 billion rubles.

Rasvet vs. Starlink

“Rasvet satellites are similar to Starlink satellites,” Egorov says. “It is a constellation of satellites for transmitting the Internet, but it would be more accurate to compare it to the OneWeb system than Starlink, because Rassvet is intended for commercial companies, state-owned enterprises and government customers. In addition, Rassvet plans to reach … about 350 satellites by 2030, while Starlink already has thousands.”

Egorov says the real challenge facing Bureau 1440 will not be so much putting the first satellites into orbit as manufacturing the system at scale. To reach a constellation of about 300 satellites in the next few years, the company will need to be able to produce one or two satellites per week, a pace the Russian space industry has never achieved. Egorov points out that so far only Starlink and OneWeb have been able to sustain such serial production.