Amazon launches first Project Kuiper satellites into orbit
In a space race between two companies started by Jeff Bezos, his e-commerce company Amazon defeated his rocket company Blue Origin in orbit.
Two Amazon prototype satellites launched Friday atop an Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. They are part of Project Kuiper, a communications constellation that will ultimately consist of more than 3,200 satellites. It will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink and other space-based internet services.
The rocket launch took place at 2:06 PM Eastern Time. The rocket’s upper stage separated from the booster a few minutes after flight and carried the satellites into orbit.
In a press releaseUnited Launch Alliance, the company that delivered the Atlas V rocket into space, said the launch was successful, indicating the rocket delivered the two satellites into the desired 500-kilometer orbit. On fridaynight, Amazon reported this in a statement that it had made contact with both orbiting satellites less than an hour after launch.
After deploying the solar panels and testing the spacecraft’s systems, the satellites must beam Internet connections from space to the company’s flat, square antennas to consumers on the ground.
“This is the first time Amazon has put satellites in space, and we will learn an incredible amount no matter how the mission unfolds,” Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper at Amazon, said in a company statement. before launch.
Amazon builds satellites and Mr. Bezos’s other company builds rockets, so why doesn’t one fly on the other? That’s because Blue Origin hasn’t launched anything into orbit yet.
While the New Shepard suborbital space tourist rocket has made many flights, the New Glenn rocket it has been developing for more than a decade to deliver payloads like Kuiper satellites into orbit is at least three years behind schedule. The debut flight is scheduled for next year.
In April last year, Amazon announced a massive purchase of a whopping 83 launches, the largest commercial purchase of rocket launches ever. That includes 27 from Blue Origin and the rest from two other companies, Arianespace of France and United Launch Alliance of the United States. The contracts with the other companies also depend on new rockets that have not yet flown: Arianespace’s Ariane 6 and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan.
Amazon also previously announced it would purchase nine launches of United Launch Alliance’s venerable Atlas V rockets. Atlas V has been flying for more than 20 years but is being discontinued due to its reliance on Russian-made rocket engines.
The two satellites, KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, make up what Amazon calls the Protoflight mission for Kuiper. They were scheduled to ride as payloads for the first launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket in May. But during a test of a Vulcan upper stage, a hydrogen leak ignited a fireball. In July, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said the company was working on a solution and that Vulcan’s first flight was expected before the end of the year.
In August, Amazon announced that it would switch rockets, from the Vulcan to an Atlas V. That was the second rocket change for the Protoflight. Amazon originally planned to launch KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 on smaller rockets from ABL Space Systems, but ABL has also experienced delays.
Officials from Blue Origin, Arianespace and United Launch Alliance have said they expect to meet the schedule of Kuiper launches.
The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates satellite communications to the ground, approved Amazon’s network in 2020. She gave the company a deadline to launch half of its 3,236 satellites by July 2026, with the full constellation deployed by July 2029.
A pension fund that owns Amazon stock sued Amazon in August for not buying launches from SpaceX, which has launched Falcon 9 rockets 70 times this year and contracts with other competitors for its Starlink service.
The complaint, filed by the Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, said Amazon’s board approved the launch contracts after only cursory reviews and took no action to protect Amazon from conflicts of interest for Mr. Bezos as owner of Blue Origin and also for the then CEO of Amazon.
“For a year and a half, Bezos was free to identify and negotiate with launch providers for Amazon, while also free to negotiate against Amazon on behalf of Blue Origin,” the lawsuit said.
In addition to supplying New Glenn launches to Amazon, Blue Origin will also benefit from Vulcan launches as United Launch Alliance purchases Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines to power the booster stage of the Vulcan rockets.
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement: “The claims in this lawsuit are completely without merit, and we look forward to proving that through the legal process.”
The lawsuit also recapped years of animosity between Mr. Bezos and Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX.
“Given their acrimonious record, Bezos had every reason to completely exclude Musk’s SpaceX from the process,” the lawsuit said. “And Bezos, one must assume, could not swallow his pride to enlist the help of his bitter rival in launching Amazon’s satellites.”