Second Rassvet Satellite Burns Up Over Orbit Failure
Russia's Rassvet constellation lost a second satellite on October 30, exposing orbit-raising faults while 30 spacecraft remain in orbit.
Why it matters
- The satellite never fired its engine.
- Archive data: peak #10, 1000+, Seen once so far — duration not yet measurable, 1 run.
- What to watch: tracking updates for No.
Why it is trending
The satellite never fired its engine. For 103 days after its July launch, Rassvet-3 No. 17 circled the Earth at an altitude it was never meant to stay at, losing height a little at a time to the thin air at the edge of the atmosphere, until on October 30 it burned up on reentry. It is the second satellite Russia's homegrown broadband constellation has lost the same way in 2026 — and the reason search interest in the programme spiked to the highest band in the day's trends. Rassvet, Russian for "dawn", is the low-Earth-orbit broadband network being built by Bureau 1440, part of IKS Holding, as a domestic alternative to SpaceX's Starlink. The idea is straightforward: hundreds of satellites, eventually about 900 by 2035, beaming internet across Russia's remote regions without relying on foreign infrastructure. The execution, so far, has been messier. Satellites are dropped off at roughly 300 kilometres and are supposed to use onboard thrusters to climb to a working orbit. Twice now, a satellite has simply never made that climb. Why it is trending now: the October 30 loss was reported in a wave across October 31 to November 2 — UNITED24 Media on October 31, The Defense News and Defense Express on November 1, VanguardEast and Euromaidan Press on November 2 — and the details line up across all of them. No. 17, NORAD ID 100083, launched July 19, 2026, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket, as one of a batch of 16. It spent three months and 11 days in orbit, never activated its propulsion system, and never performed an orbit-raising manoeuvre. The first loss, No. 4, followed the same pattern: launched March 23, 2026, in the first batch of 16, reentered on June 6 without ever raising its orbit. That leaves 30 of the 32 satellites launched in 2026 still in orbit, with 26 of them at about 500 kilometres, according to tracking summaries. The programme is therefore not grounded — most of the constellation is where it should be, and one troubled satellite, No. 23, was reportedly rescued in late October after sinking to about 220 kilometres. But two identical failures in eight months, from two separate launches, point to a propulsion problem Bureau 1440 has not publicly explained, and the gap between the programme's ambitions and its launch rate is now the story: at 32 satellites launched against a 2027 target in the high two hundreds, the next year would need a launch pace Russia has not yet shown. Our trend data: On USTRENDING's own archive, this topic stood at #10 in the 2026-11-02T07:45:01-05:00 snapshot, with a 1000+ search band — the highest band in that day's Top 10 — and this story is the site's first editorial coverage of it.
What happened
- March 23, 2026: Bureau 1440 launches its first batch of 16 Rassvet-3 satellites on a Soyuz-2.1b from Plesetsk.
- June 6, 2026: Rassvet-3 No. 4 reenters the atmosphere and burns up, having never raised its orbit.
- July 19, 2026: A second batch of 16 Rassvet-3 satellites launches on a Soyuz-2.1b from Plesetsk, including No. 17 and No. 23.
- Late July to August 2026: Reports emerge that the second batch is struggling to climb; by the end of August, none had passed about 360 kilometres, against a planned working altitude far higher.
- October 20, 2026: A rescue of No. 23 begins at about 220 kilometres, according to Defense Express reporting; the satellite starts climbing again.
- October 30, 2026: Rassvet-3 No. 17 (NORAD 100083) burns up on reentry after three months and 11 days in orbit, never having fired its orbit-raising thrusters.
- October 31 to November 2, 2026: UNITED24 Media, The Defense News, Defense Express, VanguardEast and Euromaidan Press publish the loss and the programme status, with 30 satellites reported still in orbit.
How sources covered it
| Source | Headline as published | Angle |
|---|---|---|
| UNITED24 Media | Russia's Starlink Dream Goes Up in Flames as Second Satellite Burns Up | The fullest on the No. 17 sequence: the July 19 launch, the never-activated propulsion, the three months and 11 days in orbit, and the No. 23 rescue climbing from 220 kilometres toward 300. |
| The Defense News | Russia Loses Second Rassvet Broadband Satellite After It Burns Up in Earth's Atmosphere | Matches those facts and adds the programme context: the 1440.ULTRA user terminal, claimed speeds up to 700 Mbps, and a commercial-service plan for 2027. |
| Defense Express | Russia loses Rassvet-3 satellite after three months in orbit | Agrees on No. 17 and No. 4 and on No. 23 climbing, and states the planned orbital altitude as 800 kilometres. |
| VanguardEast | Rassvet Satellites: Status of Russia's Starlink Rival | Agrees on the count — 32 launched, two lost, 30 in orbit, 26 at about 500 kilometres — and notes that the working target was lowered to about 500 kilometres in July, against the originally advertised 800. |
| Euromaidan Press | Russia's Starlink rival lost a second satellite after it apparently sat idle for 103 days | The freshest, adds the complication: space analyst Anatoly Zak's launch page still lists No. 23 among satellites expected to fall, citing the Aerospace Corporation, while public tracking data from November 1 put it at about 316 kilometres and marked active. |
What sources agree on
- the two losses, their dates
- the propulsion failure as the cause
- the 32-launched / 30-remaining count
- that 26 satellites sit at about 500 kilometres
Where coverage differs
- the intended working altitude is reported as 800 kilometres in some outlets and about 500 (or 514) kilometres in others, reflecting a target that was lowered during 2026
- the 2027 fleet target is given as 250 in one outlet and 292 in another
- No. 23's fate is genuinely disputed — rescued and climbing in Defense Express and UNITED24 reporting, still listed as expected to fall in the Aerospace Corporation-derived listing
Not yet confirmed
- Bureau 1440 has not published a root cause for either propulsion failure
- a suggested link between Rassvet terminals and equipment seen on drones is unconfirmed — one outlet notes the link is unproven, another concludes the objects are probably not Rassvet terminals
The trend data
Duration: Seen once so far — duration not yet measurable. Peak rank: #10. Peak band: 1000+. Runs: 1.
What to watch next
tracking updates for No. 23, which will settle whether the rescue held; any statement from Bureau 1440 on why two satellites never fired their thrusters; and the launch schedule for the rest of 2026 and 2027, which will show whether the programme can close the gap to its own fleet targets before its planned partial service in 2027.
Sources
Sources are linked above. The timeline, comparison and trend data are USTRENDING's own work.
How this story was made: Editorial Policy and Methodology.