The private aerospace company Bureau 1440 from Russia lost one of the first 16 serial communications satellites that were launched into orbit in March 2026. This device was supposed to become part of the future satellite constellation for high-speed Internet, which is being created by the aggressor country.
The private aerospace company Bureau 1440 from Russia lost one of the first 16 serial communications satellites that were launched into orbit in March 2026. This device was supposed to become part of the future satellite constellation for high-speed Internet, which is being created by the aggressor country.
This was reported by Russian media with reference to data from spacecraft tracking services; the loss of the satellite has also been confirmed by the company itself. Bureau 1440 stated that currently 15 devices from the first serial launch, as well as six experimental satellites of the Rassvet-1 and Rassvet-2 series, remain in low Earth orbit.
These 16 serial satellites of the Rassvet constellation were launched into orbit on March 24, 2026. At the time, the company called this launch an important step and «a transition from experiments to the creation of a communications service.» However, after just a few months of operation, one of the devices failed and stopped functioning.
Bureau 1440 is trying to create a Russian low-orbit satellite system, which is positioned as an analogue of the American Starlink service from SpaceX. According to the Russian plans, by the end of 2030 the group should have 292 satellites, and in total it is planned to launch 383 devices. This project is financed within the framework of the Russian national program «Data Economy» and requires attracting 102 billion rubles from the Russian federal budget and another 329 billion rubles of the company’s own funds.
Previously, analysts tracked the orbits of three prototype satellites from Bureau 1440 and recorded their movement in a compact group. During the observation, it turned out that the devices regularly fly directly over the territory of Ukraine .
In January, the head of the Russian state corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, said that in 2027, the Russian Federation plans to create a network of more than 300 satellites in orbit to provide Internet services in remote areas.
Previously, the blocking of smuggled Starlinks in Ukraine has already slowed down the transfer of intelligence information to the occupiers' positions. The lack of stable access to Telegram further complicates the situation and causes delays in the transmission of messages.
Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov spoke about the results of blocking the Starlink satellite internet for the Russian army and the fight against its mesh networks. According to him, the occupiers were effectively deprived of communication — the number of their streams from the front line decreased by 11 times, and the interception of radio broadcasts increased significantly.
