The battle of billionaires in space between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is ready to enter a new arena: the Internet of satellites.
Amazon, the company that Mr. Bezos started as an online bookseller thirty years ago, is now a commodity giant, owner of the James Bond franchise, a franchise that sells electronic gadgets such as Echo Smart Speakers, and one of the most powerful cloud computing providers.
So, Amazon is now launching the first few of the first few of thousands of satellites called the Kuiper project to provide another option to stay connected in the modern world, which is not surprising. Currently, SpaceX Rocket Company (Starlink) of Elon Musk's SpaceX Rocket Company (STARLINK) currently dominates the market for shooting high-speed Internet from tracks. Starlink has thousands of satellites in orbit and has launched more satellites almost every week, but it has served millions of customers around the world.
On April 9, the first attempt to send the satellite to orbit was postponed due to the harsh weather at the launch site. On Monday, the company is ready to try again.
When will it be released and how should I watch it?
The first 27 projects of the Kuiper satellite program are scheduled to stand up at Cape Canaveral Space Force, Florida, Monday Monday. They will ride in the Atlas V, a rocket made by United Punch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
ULA plans to provide real-time coverage starting at 6:35 p.m., and the company says weather conditions are currently 70% favorable for on-time releases.
The spacecraft will deploy Kuiper satellites in a circular orbit 280 miles above the ground. The satellite's propulsion system will then gradually raise the orbit to an altitude of 393 miles.
What is a Kuiper project?
The Kuiper project will be a constellation designed to provide high-speed data to internet satellites connected to every point on Earth. It will take thousands of satellites to do this successfully, and Amazon aims to operate over 3,200 in the next few years.
The company will compete with SpaceX's Starlink, a service originally primarily for residential customers to sell.
While Kuiper is also aiming to push into the market, especially in remote areas, it will also integrate with Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing product, which is popular among large companies and governments around the world. This could make it more attractive to businesses involving satellite imagery or weather forecasts that not only need to move large amounts of data on the internet, but also to calculate the data.
Ground radio will connect Kuiper satellites to the web service infrastructure in a way that allows companies to communicate with their own remote devices. For example, Amazon recommends that energy companies can use Kuiper to monitor and control remote wind farms or offshore drilling platforms.
In October 2023, two prototypes of Kuiper satellites were launched to test the technology. Amazon says the test is successful. These prototypes were never meant to serve in the operating constellations, and after seven months they were gently returned to the atmosphere and burned there. The company said it has since updated the design of “every system and subsystem on board”.
“There is a big difference between launching two satellites and launching 3,000 satellites,” Rajeev Badyal, Amazon executive who runs Kuiper, said in a pre-release promotional video.
When will Amazon provide internet services from space?
Amazon told the FCC in 2020 that service will begin after the deployment of the first 578 satellites. The company said it hopes to connect customers to the internet later this year.
While fully functional constellations require thousands of satellites, the company can provide services in a much fewer specific areas in orbit before expanding to more global coverage.
The FCC’s approval of the constellation is to require at least half of the satellites deployed by at least July 30, 2026. Industry analysts say the company could postpone if it had made a lot of progress by then.
Putting satellites into orbit also depends on the rocket launches as planned, which can be a problem if there are not enough rockets. Amazon also needs to build hundreds of ground radio stations to deliver their signals to users.
