Amazon launches first Kuiper internet satellites, competing with Starlink
Kyiv • UNN
Amazon has launched 27 Kuiper satellites, worth $10 billion, to provide broadband internet around the world. The company plans to launch 3,236 satellites and begin serving customers as early as this year.
Amazon's first 27 satellites for the Kuiper broadband internet group were launched into space from Florida in the US on Monday, launching the long-delayed deployment of an internet-from-space network that will compete with SpaceX's Starlink, UNN writes, citing Reuters.
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The satellites are the first of 3,236 that Amazon plans to send into low Earth orbit as part of Project Kuiper, a $10 billion project unveiled in 2019 to provide broadband internet around the world to consumers, businesses and governments - customers that SpaceX has courted for years.
Located atop an Atlas V rocket from the Boeing and Lockheed Martin United Launch Alliance joint venture, the batch of 27 satellites was launched into space at 7 p.m. EDT (2:00 a.m. Kyiv time) from the rocket company's launch pad at the nation's space forces station at Cape Canaveral. Bad weather canceled the initially scheduled launch attempt on April 9.
Kuiper is perhaps Amazon's biggest bet, pitting it against Starlink, as well as global telecom providers such as AT&T and T-Mobile. The company is positioning the service as a boon to rural areas where connectivity is limited or non-existent.
Within hours, or perhaps days, of the launch, Amazon is expected to publicly confirm initial contact with all of the satellites from its mission control center in Redmond, Washington. If all goes according to plan, the company said it expects to "begin serving customers later this year."
ULA may launch five more Kuiper missions this year, ULA CEO Tory Bruno told Reuters in an interview this month. Amazon said in a 2020 FCC filing that it could begin service in some northern and southern regions with 578 satellites, with coverage expanding toward the Earth's equator as the company launches new satellites.
The web services and e-commerce giant's Project Kuiper is an ambitious entry into space with a late start in a market dominated by SpaceX. But Amazon executives see the company's deep experience in consumer products and its established cloud computing business, with which Kuiper will be linked, as an advantage over Starlink.