Russia launches new batch of satellites intended as counterpart to Starlink

Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian president on the development of defence technology, has reported that Russia has launched a second batch of Rassvet satellites, which are intended to serve as a Russian counterpart to Starlink.

Source: Beskrestnov on social media

Quote: "This means there are now up to 40 satellites in orbit."

Details: According to Beskrestnov, the newly launched satellites have not yet taken their positions in the orbital constellation, "but they can do so quickly".

"For the enemy to begin using the Rassvet constellation for military purposes in any meaningful way, it needs to launch at least several hundred satellites," Flash explained.

He also noted that SpaceX currently has more than 15,000 satellites, OneWeb has 600–700, and Amazon LEO has 400–500, with plans to expand its constellation to 4,000 satellites.

Flash previously reported that Russia's Rassvet satellite communications system, which is being developed as a counterpart to Starlink, is still at an early stage of deployment and does not yet have a sufficient number of satellites.

Background:

• In March, Russian space company Bureau 1440 launched its first 16 broadband internet satellites under the Rassvet project.
• Earlier, Ukrainska Pravda reported that following Russia's unauthorised use of Starlink satellite communications terminals on attack UAVs, Ukraine and SpaceX introduced terminal verification on 2 February. Starlink terminals used by the Russian military were completely blocked.

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