Russia will soon create a competitor to the satellite internet service "Starlink" of the American multibillionaire Elon Musk, announced the head of the Russian space agency "Roscosmos" Dmitry Bakanov, quoted by Reuters, writes BTA.
"Starlink" claims to operate the largest satellite system in the world, including over 8,000 satellites.
The new director general of "Roscosmos", 39-year-old Dmitry Bakanov, admitted on the show of Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov that the space agency must break away from "inertia" and to attract more talented young people.
Bakanov is the former head of the company "Gonets", which operates a Russian satellite communications system that is much smaller in size than its American competitor and is used mainly for government purposes.
Russia is moving forward with creating an alternative to "Starlink", operated by Elon Musk's company "SpaceX", which provides internet services via a large number of satellites located in low Earth orbit, and is used mostly in remote areas and conflict zones.
"Starlink" is being used extensively by Ukrainian forces in the war with Russia, Reuters notes.
"Several test devices located in orbit have already been checked and those still in the production process have been modified accordingly," Bakanov stressed. "We are also moving rapidly in this direction," he added.
A Russian aerospace company known as "Bureau 1440" is developing a system of satellites in low-Earth orbit for global broadband data transmission.
Russia has learned from its mistakes, including the 2002 case when it rejected Musk's attempt to purchase an intercontinental ballistic missile for space launches, Bakanov said.
According to Musk's 2015 biography by Ashley Vance, the Russians rejected Musk in 2002 as if he simply didn't deserve their trust, which prompted Musk to find a way to undercut the prices of Russian space launches.
The Soviet Union troubled the West in the early years of the space race, by first launching an artificial satellite into low Earth orbit, "Sputnik 1", on October 4, 1957, and then on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel into space. However, since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Russian space program has faced a huge lack of funding, corruption and complaints from young engineers about mismanagement, Reuters notes.
Russia's ambitions to be a leading force in space exploration suffered a serious blow in August 2023, when the unmanned mission "Luna-25" crashed while attempting to land on the surface of the moon.