All 16 of Russia's latest satellites for its Starlink rival failed to reach their intended orbit

Russia's latest batch of 16 Rassvet-3 satellites, intended to create a rival to Starlink, has failed to reach their intended operational orbit. Launched on July 19, these satellites were meant to orbit at an altitude of roughly 500 miles, but as of Tuesday, they were found to be orbiting between 190 miles and 250 miles. This significantly lower altitude will drastically shorten the satellites' operational lifespan due to atmospheric drag.

The failure of these satellites is a setback for Russia's ambition to create its own alternative to Starlink, a priority for the Kremlin following SpaceX's cut-off of satellite internet service to Russian forces in February. Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War suggest that the apparent failure of all 16 satellites from the second launch to reach their intended operational altitudes may indicate that Russia is unprepared to accelerate constellation deployment at this pace and will likely face additional delays.

Brief written by urgent.news from Business Insider's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.