Communications

SKIF-D

Russian Broadband Satellite (Abandoned Constellation — Only Satellite Ever Launched) · ISS Reshetnev (Russia)

Skif-D was supposed to be the start of Russia's own Starlink. Launched October 22, 2022 as the first satellite of the Sfera constellation — a planned 162-satellite Russian answer to SpaceX's broadband dominance — it was meant to prove out medium-orbit internet technology before hundreds more followed. None did. Not one additional Skif satellite has reached orbit since. Russian officials quietly abandoned the follow-on program, pivoting instead to a smaller domestic effort called Rassvet, and Skif-D itself sits alone in orbit today — the entire visible legacy of a constellation that was supposed to have 162 satellites and, three years later, still has exactly one.