Object 4 decayed out of a 300km parking orbit while 15 of its batch-mates slowly climbed toward operational altitude.
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Each Rassvet-3 satellite weighs about 370 kilos (816 pounds) and was released into a near-polar orbit inclined 82.3 degrees to the equator. For the first two weeks, none of the batch showed any propulsion activity, raising the prospect that the whole group had a problem. Object 16 (NORAD ID 68375) was the first to climb, on April 6th, with others following over the next several days. Object 4 (NORAD ID 68363) stayed flat throughout, losing altitude at the natural rate until re-entry became unavoidable. The cause of this is unconfirmed, but a dead propulsion system and a complete loss of ground control would both produce the same outcome.
At altitudes near 300km, residual atmosphere drags on a spacecraft hard enough that an unpowered satellite has an orbital life measured only in weeks. That’s why we see SpaceX deploying Starlink low before raising and actively maintaining each satellite's altitude, so a unit that fails on arrival deorbits itself quickly instead of becoming space debris.
Earlier this year, Starlink pulled more than 4,000 satellites down to a roughly 300-mile orbit after a near miss with a Chinese spacecraft, and dead Starlink units routinely re-enter within weeks of an anomaly . Object 4 followed that same disposal pathway; a satellite that cannot raise itself simply falls.
Meanwhile, Bureau 1440, the Moscow company building Rassvet, has a fraction of the hardware in orbit that it needs. When Russia's "Starlink rival" launched , the company set a target of 250 satellites by 2027 and around 900 by 2035, backed by roughly $1.26 billion in state funding.
Russian ‘Starlink Rival’ established with 16 satellites launched, aims for 900 by 2035
Starlink satellite 34343 disappears in ‘fragment creation event’
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/russias-rassvet-constellation-loses-its-first-satellite-to-orbital-decay#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/subscription
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