Russian Starlink satellite burns up after launch
One of the satellites in Russia’s “Rassvet” satellite internet system—which Russia positions as an equivalent to Starlink—malfunctioned almost immediately after launch and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
According to orbit monitoring data, the spacecraft, launched on March 23 as part of the first batch of 16 satellites, was unable to perform an orbital correction due to an engine failure. As a result, it began to lose altitude and on June 6 entered the dense layers of the atmosphere over the North Atlantic.
The other satellites in the constellation continue to maneuver in orbit and, as of now, remain operational.
The “Rassvet” project is being implemented by Bureau 1440, a subsidiary of X Holding. Russian authorities view the system as their own alternative to Starlink for providing broadband internet access.
In total, the project calls for the launch of 383 satellites, 292 of which are to be placed into orbit by 2030. According to the developers’ estimates, at least 250 satellites are needed for full global coverage.
More than 430 billion rubles are planned to be spent on the program. The next launch of the "Rassvet" satellites is tentatively scheduled for June 18.
At the same time, the Russian project lags significantly behind SpaceX’s Starlink, whose constellation already includes over 10,000 satellites in orbit.
Source: RussianSpaceWeb.
Recently, the American company SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket, which placed another batch of 24 Starlink internet satellites into Earth orbit.
SpaceX earned $8 billion last year.
