Sfera (previously Efir or эфир) is a telecommunication project of the Russian Federation aiming to create and operate a satellite group maintaining communication to various terrestrial objects.
[6] The new development was included in the federal program “Digital Economy” in 2017, extending until 2024 and was announced on the “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin” in 2018.
[7] The launches of 640 satellites were planned[8] for 2022-2028 (6 years), and the system would integrate a few pre-existing projects: navigational GLONASS, TV transmitting Express, personal communications Gonets, and several new ones: comunicational Express-RV, IoT data-transmitting Marafon, TV-transmitting Luch, mid-orbital broadband internet Skif and telecomminicational Efir.
On October 25, 2021 Dmitry Rigozin, then head of Roskosmos, announced that the 640 satellites were to form five groups for telecom (satellite series Yamal, Express-RV, Express, Skif, Marafon IoT) and five groups for monitoring in various specters (Smotr, Berkut-O, Berkut-S, Berkut-VD, Berkut-X,L,P), while the latter to be able to radioscan the Arctic first and foremost.
[9] The first satellite launched was Skif-D on October 23, 2022, which was in fact a test vehicle to explore the technical possibilities and do radiation analysis as well as start the specter utilization (protection) for the future.
[12] Apart from monitoring and telecom, the Sfera satellites are to be providing broadband access to internet and IoT connectivity for over 50 mln devices while simultaneously supporting the presidential, governmental and industrial lines of communication.