Amazon plans to launch two prototype satellites in early 2023. With Project Kuiper, Amazon wants to offer broadband internet via satellite.
With the so-called Project Kuiper, Amazon wants to put 3,236 satellites into orbit around the earth. They must provide high-speed internet via satellite, thus competing with SpaceX’s Starlink (Elon Musk) and London-based satellite operator OneWeb.
Most of the launches will be conducted by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of US companies Boeing and Lockheed Martin. He will use his new rocket Vulcan Centaur for this. The first flight was initially planned for this year but was moved to next year.
Now Amazon has announced that the first two satellites (Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2) will be completed this year and will go into space with ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket “early 2023” from Cape Canaveral in Florida. ULA will make 47 launches for the Amazon constellation, of which at least 38 are already via Vulcan Centaur. In addition to the two Amazon satellites, the Vulcan Centaur rocket will also carry the Peregrine lunar lander. NASA funds Astrobotic’s lunar lander.
The prototype mission should help Amazon test how the different parts of the satellite network work together. Then, the data from space will be added to the laboratory tests, fieldwork and simulations results. After that, the first real ‘production’ satellites that can offer broadband internet from space will be launched into orbit around the earth via ULA’s Atlas V rocket. In addition to the Vulcan rocket launches, rockets from Arianespace and Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will also be deployed.
More than 1,000 employees are working on Project Kuiper, according to Amazon. The aim is to eventually serve ‘tens of millions of customers worldwide with broadband internet via satellite. Amazon plans to invest ten billion dollars in Project Kuiper and to close the gap with SpaceX’s Starlink. That space company has already started commercial internet services.
