Russia files ITU plans for a new Rassvet-4 satellite after launch failures
Bureau 1440
An ITU filing shows Russia quietly designing a Rassvet-4 satellite after early losses in its Rassvet broadband constellation.
what happened
Defense Express reports that an ITU filing reveals Russia is developing Rassvet-4, a 374-satellite design across 17 orbital planes of 22 satellites each at roughly 800km altitude, as a successor to the Rassvet-3 satellites Bureau 1440 has been launching since March 2026. Two of the first 32 Rassvet-3 satellites have already fallen from orbit and the remaining 30 have not reached their intended 800km operational altitude, per the outlet's tracking of public satellite data. Bureau 1440 has not publicly announced Rassvet-4.
why it matters
A redesign this early signals Bureau 1440 is treating Rassvet-3's altitude and survival problems as a platform-level issue, not a one-off batch defect, which matters for how fast Russia can field a credible Starlink alternative for the services and territories it is trying to cover, including occupied Ukrainian territory.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- Bureau 1440
- Category
- constellation
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 2 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-11-03
- Published
- 2026-11-03 14:57 UTC