An analog of Starlink will appear in Russia — what is known

In the near future, an analog of the Starlink satellite communication system, owned by the American company SpaceX, will be launched in Russia. This was announced on Wednesday, September 17, by the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov. Read about what this project will be like in the Izvestia article.

What is known about the Russian equivalent of Starlink

On the air of the Solovyov Live channel, Bakanov said that Russia has already developed a low-orbit satellite communications system similar to Starlink. According to him, the launch of the first group of spacecraft into orbit will begin at the end of 2025.

"And since December of this year, it has been deployed in the number of 300 devices — this is the first stage, and 900 devices — the second stage. That is, we are also moving at a rapid pace in this direction," said the head of Roscosmos.

When asked whether the domestic system would be "better, worse or similar" to the American one, Bakanov replied that it would be at least similar and would provide users with broadband Internet access in any geographical location. He added that several test vehicles have already been put into orbit and inspected, and serial samples have been finalized based on the data obtained.

"And the serial ones, 16 vehicles per rocket, have been deployed since December of this year. And within two years, this group will be deployed," Bakanov said.

Bakanov previously announced the project "Dawn" from Bureau 1440, which should be the answer to Starlink. He noted that the implementation of this project will make it possible to control Russian drones with increased accuracy.

What is Starlink?

Starlink is a satellite communications system owned by the American company SpaceX, which is owned by Elon Musk. It provides access to high-speed broadband Internet from anywhere in the world. Unlike most providers of such services, Starlink puts its devices not into high geostationary orbit (35,786 km from the Earth's surface), but into low Earth orbit (550 km). This significantly increases the signal processing speed between the satellite and the communication terminal, which allows for more data transmission.

What is Starlink — how does Elon Musk's satellite Internet work

Today, more than 6 thousand Starlink satellites are orbiting our planet. At the same time, SpaceX applied to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to launch 30,000 vehicles.

What satellite communication systems do Russia have?

Since 2018, the Russian Federation has also been implementing the Sphere program. This is a project of a global multifunctional infocommunication satellite system (GMISS), which includes all existing satellite groupings. They are responsible for providing mobile communications, maintaining the Internet of Things for industrial facilities, and other functions. In 2022, the first rocket with new Skif satellites, which will be responsible for broadband high-speed Internet, was also launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome. In 2026-2027, it is planned to launch six more such devices into orbit.

In addition, the Sphere project is developing the Gryphon global Earth monitoring system, launching the new Yamal-501 communications satellite into orbit, and much more.

Earlier, Bakanov announced the successful launch of a satellite of the Russian global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) from the Plesetsk cosmodrome.