09/22/2026
@WesODonnellX breaks down Russia’s scramble to replace its lost Starlink capabilities with its new “Rassvet” satellite network.
After Russian troops were abruptly cut off from SpaceX terminals, Moscow rushed to orbit its own low-Earth constellation – only for its satellites to face severe altitude decay and orbital failures.
Now, Ukraine has taken counter-space warfare to the ground, targeting the Progress rocket factory in Samara to destroy the launch pipeline before these satellites can ever reach orbit.
- Video Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction: Russia’s lost Starlink access
- 1:25 How Russian troops used Starlink
- 2:03 Ukraine blocks unauthorised terminals
- 3:19 The impact of losing high-speed bandwidth
- 4:36 Russia’s ambitious Rassvet satellite programme
- 5:45 Orbital failures and technical struggles
- 7:52 Assessing the current utility of Rassvet
- 9:45 Challenges in industrial scaling
- 10:49 Ukraine’s strike on the Progress rocket factory
- 12:33 The logic behind ‘left of launch’ warfare
- 13:36 Sovereignty versus industrial vulnerability
- 14:47 The future of battlefield comms
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