Russia has taken its first operational step towards building a sovereign satellite internet network, with private aerospace company Bureau 1440 launching the initial 16 satellites of its Rassvet constellation in March 2026, marking what the company described as the transition from an experimental phase to the active development of a communications service. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the military Plesetsk Cosmodrome on March 23, 2026, placing the 16 satellites of the Rassvet constellation into orbit, where they subsequently underwent system checks before beginning manoeuvres towards their target orbital positions. The launch, which had originally been scheduled for late 2025 before production delays pushed it into 2026, represents the first time Russia has placed an operational batch of low Earth orbit broadband satellites into space.
The spacecraft integrate a communication system based on fifth generation non-terrestrial network architecture, an updated power supply system, new-generation inter-satellite laser communication terminals, and a plasma propulsion system, giving them a technical profile that Bureau 1440 says will eventually support speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second with low latency. The Russian government has earmarked 102.8 billion rubles, equivalent to approximately United States Dollars 1.26 billion, for the development of Rassvet, while Bureau 1440 plans to invest an additional 329 billion rubles of its own funds through 2030. The constellation takes its name from the Russian word for dawn, and is being developed as a direct domestic alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink, whose services Russia has sought to restrict within its own borders while simultaneously accelerating the development of a sovereign capability. Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov has previously stated that more than 900 low Earth orbit satellites in the Rassvet network are scheduled to go into space by 2035, with commercial operations involving over 250 satellites expected to begin sometime in 2027.
The gap between Rassvet’s current position and that of its primary competitor, however, is considerable. By comparison, over 10,200 satellites are currently used by SpaceX to run Starlink, a figure that underscores the scale of the industrial and logistical challenge Bureau 1440 faces in building a functionally competitive constellation. Space analyst Vitaly Egorov noted that while the project was initially intended for civilian use such as providing connectivity for airlines and rail networks, its strategic value has shifted considerably, particularly given the geopolitical pressures Russia faces around access to Western satellite communications infrastructure. According to the official project timeline, 172 satellites are to be launched by the end of 2026, though it remains unclear whether this target can still be achieved given the pace of deployments so far. Bureau 1440 has acknowledged that dozens more launches and hundreds of satellites will be required before the network is capable of delivering global coverage at a meaningful scale.
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