Amazon’s Kuiper Broadband Internet Constellation’s first 27 satellites launched in Space from Florida on Monday, starting a long-standing deployment of the Internet from Space networks, comparable to SpaceX’s Starlink.
The satellite is the first of 3,236 Amazon plans to send to Project Kuiper’s low-earth orbit. This is a billion dollar effort in 2019 that launched beam broadband internet worldwide for consumers, businesses and governments. SpaceX is a long-standing customer who has been tried for its powerful StarLink business.
Sitting on the Atlas V rockets of the Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s Joint United Launch Alliance, a batch of 27 satellites was lofted into space at EDT at 7pm from the launch pad of the Rocket Company at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The bad weather rubbed the first launch attempt on April 9th.
Kuiper is undoubtedly Amazon’s biggest bet, catching it against Starlink and global telecom providers like AT&T and T-Mobile. The company positions its services as a boon to rural areas where connectivity is sparse or non-existent.
The mission to deploy the first operating satellite has been delayed by more than a year. Amazon once hoped to start its first batch in early 2024. The company faces a deadline set by the Federal Communications Commission to deploy 1,618 satellites by mid-2026, meaning Amazon is likely to seek an extension.
Amazon is expected to publicly confirm initial contact with all satellites from the Mission Operations Center in Redmond, Washington, hours or days after launch. If everything goes as planned, the company said it expects it will “start to serve its customers later this year.”
ULA can launch five more Kuiper Missions this year, ULA CEO Tory Bruno told Reuters in an interview this month. Amazon said in its 2020 FCC filing it could launch services in some of its 578 satellites in the northern and southern regions, expanding towards the Earth’s equator as the company launches more satellites.
Web Services and e-Commerce Giant project Kuiper is an ambitious foray into space, with a slow start in a SpaceX-dominated market. However, Amazon executives are looking at the company’s deep consumer product experience and established cloud computing business, where Kuiper connects as the edge of StarLink.
Amazon launched two prototype satellites in 2023, which are said to have been successful in 2023. It was successful before it developed in 2024. The program was relatively quiet about developing its program until the announcement of its first Kuiper launch plan earlier this month.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a unique edge as both a satellite operator and launch company with a reusable Falcon 9, bringing more than 8,000 StarLink satellites into orbit since 2019, marking the 250th dedicated StarLink launch on Monday. Its deployment pace is rushing to at least one StarLink mission a week. Each rocket carries approximately two dozen satellites to extend the bandwidth of the network and replace outdated satellites.
Its fast pace is set to see Musk’s company gain more than 5 million internet users in 125 countries, promote the global satellite communications market and WOO’s military and intelligence agency, and use Starlink and its production lines for its delicate national security programs.
Amazon executive chair Jeff Bezos expressed confidence that Kuiper could compete with Starlink, telling Reuters in an interview in January that there was “an insatiable demand.”
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“There’s a lot of room for winners there. Starlink expects it will continue to succeed, and Kuiper expects it will succeed,” he said.
“It will be primarily a commercial system, but these Leo constellations have defensive uses, but definitely,” he adds, referring to low Earth orbit.
In 2023, Amazon revealed the Kuiper Consumer terminal, an LP vinyl record-sized antenna that communicates with the overhead Kuiper satellite, and a small terminal whose size is compared to e-book Kindle devices. The company expects to create devices for tens of millions of people for less than $400 each.
In 2022, Amazon pre-ordered 83 rocket launches from the French Arian Sperth and Blue Origin ULA.
