Russia's Starlink rival written off as a failure — but its satellites keep climbing

Russia's attempt to build its own equivalent of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet system was recently dismissed as a failure, but new tracking data suggests the project's satellites are still actively climbing to their working orbit.

The latest batch of satellites was launched on 19 July. Forty-six days after that launch, the spacecraft now sit at a median altitude of 365 km above Earth.

This figure is notable when compared with the project's first batch of satellites, which is already operational. At the same 46-day mark after its own launch, that first batch had reached a lower altitude than the new batch has now achieved.

The fact that the newer satellites are gaining altitude faster than their predecessors suggests that, despite earlier assessments that the program had failed, the constellation is still being actively deployed, with the spacecraft gradually rising toward their intended operational orbit.

The project is widely regarded as Russia's counterpart to Starlink, the SpaceX-operated system that provides broadband internet using thousands of low-orbit satellites. While detailed technical specifications and future plans for the Russian project are not widely available publicly, the continued climb in altitude of the newest satellites indicates that the spacecraft remain in an active phase of reaching their planned operational position, contradicting claims that the effort had stalled.