Russia intends to switch the commercial nature of its domestic response to Starlink next year, according to people familiar with the plan cited by Reuters, the latest milestone in a project that has been promising for most of the decade.
The constellation is called Rassvet, the operator is a private aerospace firm called Bureau 1440, and the ambition is deliberately less than the American network it aims to compete with.
The scale tells the story. SpaceX has put thousands of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. Bureau 1440 plans to reach commercial service by 2027 at a rate of hundreds of stars, with about 288 to 292 numbers quoted in the first phase of operation, and a long-term target of around 900 in the mid-2030s.
Moscow, for years, has described the goal as something like Starlink rather than matchmaking, and the numbers keep that promise true.
Hardware goes further than mere rhetoric would suggest. In March the company launched 16 operational satellites, on March 23, following a series of test crafts in 2023 and 2024 under the Rassvet-1 and Rassvet-2 test programs.
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Bureau 1440 described the satellites as carrying 5G non-terrestrial network communications, laser inter-satellite links, an advanced power system, and plasma thrusters, standard kit for a modern broadband constellation.
Dmitry Bakanov, the head of the Roscosmos space agency, told Reuters in September last year that many of the test vehicles already in orbit had been tested and the satellites in production had been properly adjusted.
Target targets are also published. Bureau 1440 has advertised speeds from 50 megabits to one gigabit per second, with planned coverage in more than 70 countries.
Those figures are claims instead of demonstrated performance, the difference that separates the constellation from the slide to the one that carries the paying traffic, and only the commercial launch will test it.
Money is committed, on paper at least. The Russian government has earmarked 102.8 billion rubles, about $1.26bn, for Rassvet, and Bureau 1440 said it will add 329 billion rubles, about $4bn, by 2030.
The company has set a target of 1.5 to 2 million subscribers within Russia and up to 12 million worldwide, planned in more than 70 countries.
The date 2027 is a footnote. Previous targets have fallen amid reported production shortfalls, which is the kind of detail that often emerges from star programs everywhere, not just in Russia.
Building satellites is one problem; building them quickly enough, with the numbers a useful network needs, is different and difficult. The 16 boats currently operating in the surrounding areas are the beginning of the number that needs to clear 250 before paying customers can be served.
There is a study of strategies to stay below the market. An independent broadband network independent of a foreign operator is attractive to any government watching Starlink become a bone of contention for Ukraine.
Whether Rassvet arrives at the appointed time, and in the throughput Bureau 1440 advertises, the question 2027 will answer. Constellation, meanwhile, is a program with a launch cadence attached.
