Washington, April 2: In a long-awaited move to establish a huge constellation that will compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink system, Amazon.com announced on Wednesday that it will launch the first 27 satellites for its Project Kuiper internet network next week.
Amazon (AMZN.O) announced in a statement that it will launch the “Kuiper Atlas 1” mission from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on April 9 at noon EDT (1600 GMT). Amazon targets the launch of the first Kuiper internet satellites on April 9.
Amazon plans to launch the first Kuiper internet satellites on April 9.
As part of a massive multi-launch agreement that Amazon signed in 2022, the satellites will be sent into space by an Atlas 5 rocket from Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab, and Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab joint venture, United Launch Alliance.
“We’ve done extensive testing on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things you can only learn in flight, and this will be the first time we’ve flown our final satellite design and the first time we’ve deployed so many satellites at once.” The mission will launch Amazon’s full-scale deployment of Kuiper, a mesh-like network intended to top 3,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit that will provide high-speed internet globally and compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.
First Kuiper internet satellites:
“No matter how the mission unfolds, this is just the start of our journey, and we have all the pieces in place to learn and adapt as we prepare to launch again and again over the coming years,” he stated.
After employing a group of engineers who had been in charge of Musk’s Starlink before he sacked them the previous year, Amazon announced Project Kuiper in 2019 with promises to invest $10 billion in the network’s construction.
Since then, SpaceX has rapidly disrupted the worldwide satellite communications business by launching over 8,000 Starlink satellites into orbit and gaining over five million Internet users in 125 countries.
Despite its delayed start, Amazon believes it has an advantage over SpaceX in luring Kuiper clients and mass-producing consumer terminals—the pizza-box-sized antennas that will connect to Kuiper satellites overhead—due to its dominating online services business and consumer product experience.
In 2022, as it got ready to start Kuiper deployment, Amazon secured the largest launch deal in the market by scheduling 83 rocket launches from ULA, France’s Arianespace, and Jeff Bezos’s space business, Blue Origin. In 2023, the business successfully launched two prototype satellites for testing.