Putin promised to multiply the satellite constellation

To catch up with leading countries, Russia needs to create 250 satellites per year

President Vladimir Putin ordered the creation of high-speed Internet throughout Russia in the “horizon of the current decade” during his address to the Federal Assembly. In this regard, he ordered the allocation of 116 billion rubles for the development of a satellite telecommunications constellation. Whether this is a lot or a little, whether the creation of this group has begun, we tried to figure it out with our experts.

The President of the country clearly described the goal – creating conditions for the use of digital services not only in large cities, but also in rural settlements, remote areas and along federal and regional highways and local roads.

“To do this, within the next decade it is necessary to provide access to high-speed Internet throughout Russia,” said Vladimir Vladimirovich. “We will solve this problem, including through a multiple increase in our satellite constellation, and will allocate 116 billion rubles for its development.”

Those who were under the impression of spending extra, fabulous amounts of money on satellites can relax. Firstly, this is not so much, and secondly, according to experts from the space industry, this amount is most likely a return to Roscosmos of what was not given initially. As you know, the state planned to spend 1 trillion 406 billion rubles on the current Federal Space Program (FSP) from 2016 to 2025. In reality, less money was allocated. Thus, according to data as of July 2020 (according to the report of the Accounts Chamber), the reduction in funding for the FKP fell by 12.8% compared to the original edition…

Let’s see what we have today. Approximately 160 satellites for various purposes in different orbits. Let’s compare this with the multi-thousand-strong constellation of the United States, and the half-thousand-strong constellation of China and Great Britain… Of course, 160 satellites are not enough for us to provide the country with high-quality space services – communications, navigation, remote sensing of the Earth.

To catch up with advanced countries, we, according to Yuri Borisov, need to launch 250 satellites into orbit per year. If we take exactly this pace, then within 10 years Russia will have 2,660 satellites for various purposes in orbit. This is if you take exactly this pace…

Alas, according to the head of the Space Policy Institute, Ivan Moiseev, in reality the country produces about 20 satellites per year, not counting nanosatellites. And 116 billion may be enough for only a few dozen devices. For 10 years, this amount will definitely not be enough, even if we produce 15 of them, not 250, per year. It turns out this situation: either the figure that Borisov spoke about is still unattainable, or part of the data on the production of satellites in our country and the actual amounts allocated for them is simply kept secret.

If we operate with what is publicly available, we have about 20 satellites of the Gonets system, which in functionality resembles Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, about 10-12 connected heavy geostationary satellites Express, 24 navigation satellites of the GLONASS system , several meteorological satellites “Meteor-M”, “Arctic” and others.

The former head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, talked a lot about the Sphere program, which would include communications and remote sensing satellites. On October 22, 2022, as part of this program, a small satellite “Skif-D” weighing 148 kg was launched. Demo.

The second satellite within the framework of the same promising program, Marathon-IoT, was supposed to be launched on the day of the President’s Address to the Federal Assembly, February 29, simultaneously with the Meteor-M satellite No. 2-4. But “due to the need for additional checks of the software and clarification of the research program,” as explained in Roscosmos, its launch was postponed to a later date.

Let us recall that according to the initial plans, the Marathon-IoT satellite constellation, intended for the Internet of Things, was to consist of six devices by 2024, and the start of providing services with its help was to begin in 2025.

In total, according to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the Sphere project involves the creation of a satellite constellation of more than 600 spacecraft.