Experts estimated the cost of launching and maintaining a satellite in orbit

Launching and operating satellites in Earth orbit require significant financial investment, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on the satellite’s size and purpose. 

According to BGR, launching a small satellite costs between $10 million and several hundred million dollars, excluding development costs, and when ground communication costs (starting at $1.5 million per year) and operations are factored in, the first year of operation costs at least $11.5 million. 

At the same time, United Spaceports Corporation is considering launching devices the size of a refrigerator for a flat fee of $5.5 million. For more compact formats, such as CubeSats, assembly kits cost $7,000–$8,000, and Rocket Lab’s launch cost ranges from 50,000 to 90,000 USD for a 1U format, although AmbaSat offers even cheaper educational options with limited functionality. The duration of stay in orbit ranges from 1–3 years for CubeSats and 5 years for Starlink to 150 years in high orbits, which highlights the problem of space debris and the impact of metal particles burning up in the atmosphere on the ozone layer.

Source: BGR.

Russia’s Security Council has stated that Elon Musk’s Starlink and OneWeb satellite communication systems could allegedly be used to destabilize the situation in other countries. Moscow believes that the proliferation of such technologies poses risks to national sovereignty and is calling for the accelerated development of its own “Rassvet” satellite network.