Russia is building its own constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that will start providing high-speed, low-latency internet to users from 2027, the Communications Ministry said Friday.
Three LEO satellites were launched from the Vostochny space port in the Russian Far East as part of a pilot mission that will pave the way for Russia's own constellation of hundreds of LEO satellites delivering internet services to users in 75 countries.
"The current transmission speed is 12 Mbps [Megabits per second] and latency […] is 41 milliseconds. The pilot mission does not aim for high speeds but you can stream a movie in HD format even at this speed rate," the ministry said.
Russia plans to launch a dozen missions to the LEO every year starting 2025. Each rocket will carry a payload of some 15 satellites, with more than 900 LEO satellites expected to be put into orbit by 2035.