Moscow’s Starlink rival suffers early failure in race to catch SpaceX

About six years after SpaceX began deploying its network, which now has more than 10,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, Russia launched the first batch of 16 Rassvet satellites into orbit in March.

By June, however, one of them had reportedly failed.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s space ambitions appeared to suffer another blow on July 1, when the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported a strike on a space communications center near Moscow. Ukraine said the main building was hit and some antennas were destroyed.

The Rassvet rollout and the military strike underscore the problems Moscow faces as it tries to keep pace with Washington and Beijing in orbit, especially during its war against Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.

Dmitry Bakanov, the new head of Roscosmos, has been tasked with restoring at least some of Russia’s former space prestige. Appointed by Putin in 2025, Bakanov has encouraged SpaceX-style startups and promoted the Rassvet project.

Roscosmos’ effort to catch up contrasts with the “golden age” of the Soviet space program during the Cold War, Bloomberg reported. The Soviet Union launched the first satellite and sent the first human into space. Russia also remained a leader after the Soviet collapse, with Soyuz rockets serving foreign satellite operators that needed access to orbit.

Russia’s war against Ukraine, however, dealt a devastating blow to that business as potential customers turned to other companies. Roscosmos is “a black hole absorbing billions in annual losses,” Bloomberg quoted Pavel Luzin, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, as saying.

SpaceX’s record initial public offering in June further highlighted the gap, Bloomberg said.

On April 16, the Militarnyi news outlet reported that in late March, Russian company Bureau 1440 launched the first production batch of 16 satellites that will form the basis of the future Rassvet communications system. The report said this marked the start of Russia’s deployment of a “Starlink-like” communications system that would pose a strategic threat not only to Ukraine but also to other countries.

Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, said at least 200–250 satellites would need to be launched to ensure constant and stable data transmission.

On June 12, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin with service members taking part in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. During the meeting, he twice claimed that Russia already had a domestic satellite internet system for drone control. Russian service members, however, said such systems did not actually exist.

At the meeting, Putin also mentioned aerospace company Bureau 1440. In March, it launched the first satellites of the low Earth orbit Rassvet constellation, billed as Russia’s alternative to Starlink.