Characteristics of the “Russian Starlink” revealed

Doctor of Technical Sciences, State Prize laureate Alexander Nikitin revealed the characteristics of the Russian Rassvet satellite communication system, which is an analogue of the American Starlink. He told KP.RU about this.

According to him, the system consists of several components. In particular, it includes satellites, a kind of orbital base stations. The system also includes so-called gateway stations on Earth, which connect the group in space with conventional ground-based communication networks. The third component is the subscriber with his terminal, communicating with the satellite passing above him.

The publication’s interlocutor noted that Rassvet is designed to operate in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 800 kilometers. At the same time, he pointed out, the Starlink satellites of the American entrepreneur Elon Musk use an orbit of about 550 kilometers.

Nikitin added that in the federal project “everything is planned out by year.” “About one and a half hundred satellites are planned to be put into orbit in 2026, and almost twice as many in 2027,” he said, adding that by 2035 up to 900 satellites are expected to be in orbit.