Russia Lost Another Satellite From Its Ambitious Starlink Rival After Rassvet-3 No. 17 Burned Up in Orbit

Russia’s drive to build a domestic high-speed satellite network suffered another hit after a second spacecraft tumbled out of low Earth orbit and burned up in the atmosphere. The satellite, designated Rassvet-3 No. 17, reentered dense atmospheric layers on October 30 after its onboard propulsion failed to ignite, leaving it defenseless against orbital decay.

The spacecraft spent barely three months in space following its mid-summer launch. The incident highlights mounting propulsion snags facing the Russia Rassvet constellation, an ambitious effort engineered by commercial aerospace firm Bureau 1440 to rival SpaceX‘s Starlink network.

With Moscow banking on this mega-constellation for high-speed internet and military drone communication links, orbital drag is claiming hardware before it can even reach operational altitude.

What Went Wrong With Rassvet-3 No. 17?

Rassvet-3 No. 17 launched on July 19 aboard a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome as part of a 16-satellite delivery. Tracked under NORAD identifier 100083, the spacecraft was supposed to ignite its onboard thrusters to circularize and raise its flight path.

Those engines never fired. Without corrective propulsion maneuvers, atmospheric drag at lower altitudes acts like a relentless brake, stripping away orbital velocity day by day.

Over a span of three months and 11 days, the craft sank through low Earth orbit until friction incinerated it completely. The incident follows an identical failure on June 6, when Rassvet-3 No. 4 (NORAD 68363) plummeted and burned up after launching in the program’s initial 16-satellite batch on March 23.

When early-stage low Earth orbit satellites experience thruster blackout immediately after stage separation, atmospheric friction guarantees orbital decay within months.

Out of 32 total spacecraft launched across two rocket missions, two have now been lost to terminal propulsion failures.

The Battle to Keep the Fleet Airborne

The program aims to put 350 operational craft into orbit initially, with longer-term proposals scaling up to 900 units. Commercial service is targeted for 2027, making every satellite loss an unwelcome setback.

Beyond consumer connectivity, military utility remains a major priority. Ground terminals tied to the Rassvet network have already been reported aboard strike drones deployed in the war in Ukraine.

The Survival Maneuver: Saving Satellite No. 23

Not every failing satellite suffered the fate of No. 17. A companion craft from the same July launch batch, Rassvet-3 No. 23, began an uncontrolled descent that dropped it down to a dangerously low altitude of roughly 220 kilometers.

Controllers managed to activate its thrusters on October 20, pulling the spacecraft out of its dive. By late October, telemetry confirmed No. 23 had pushed past 296 kilometers and was continuing an active climb to rejoin the fleet.

Myth vs. Reality: Is the Constellation Actually Stalled?

Public speculation often treats any satellite loss as evidence of a collapsed space initiative. Tracking data reveals a more nuanced, dual reality for the Russia Rassvet constellation.

• The Myth: Every Rassvet satellite is stranded or falling out of orbit because none have reached their planned 800-kilometer altitude.
• The Reality: Parking at 500 kilometers is an intentional operational maneuver. Exactly 26 of the 30 surviving satellites are holding steady around 500 kilometers to spread out along their orbital plane before beginning a synchronized climb to 800 kilometers.
• The Early Starlink Parallel: Early constellation deployment carries high attritional risk. When the first 60 Starlink satellites launched, roughly 10 failed to reach target orbit or had to be intentionally deorbited.

Bureau 1440 is already running test terminals in remote Russian regions directly through the craft parked at 500 kilometers, verifying that communication payloads work despite the thruster inconsistencies.

Reaching high-density low Earth orbit requires building mass manufacturing pipelines that can absorb individual component failures.

While the surviving 30 satellites demonstrate that the core hardware functions, losing serial production units to propulsion blackouts exposes fragile quality control in Russia’s satellite supply chain.

📱 High-speed satellite communications have become the backbone of modern geopolitical and defense strategy.

✨ Deploying hundreds of reliable orbital nodes demands an industrial consistency that few space programs manage to master on schedule.

💬 Can domestic alternatives ever challenge dominant commercial constellations like Starlink? Drop your thoughts in the comments below and share your take with fellow space enthusiasts.

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