Russia races to launch Elon Musk’s Starlink rival satellite

Russia is vying to launch its own satellite internet service in a competition to Elon Musk’s Starlink in a bid to counter SpaceX global dominance.

Russia's space chief confirmed on Wednesday that Russia is developing its own analogue of the American satellite communications system Starlink.

Starlink being the world’s largest satellite constellation, deploys more than 8000 satellites.

The space agency also plans to launch the first batch of satellite internet terminals later this year to compete Starlink network. 

According to Dmitry Bakanov, the head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, also shed light on the need to attract young talent to the space agency in order to break away inertia and develop satellites.

The purpose of developing an alternative to Starlink is due to its widespread use in the conflict-ridden and remote areas. As per Russian officials, Ukrainian forces are heavily dependent on Starlink for waging attacks in Russia.

"Several test vehicles in orbit have already been inspected and the production ones have been modified accordingly. We are also moving at a rapid pace in this direction," Bakanov said.

Bureau 1440, a Russian aerospace company, is involved in the preparation of a low Earth orbit satellite system for global broadband data delivery. 

More than 900 are expected to be launched by 2035. The commercial services involving over 250 satellites are planned to begin in 2027.