According to Amazon, the project is on schedule to begin launching operational satellites by mid-2024. The company claimed on Thursday that its two prototype satellites for its proposed Kuiper internet network have been operating successfully in orbit. The world’s largest satellite operator, Starlink, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, will face competition from the Kuiper internet network as it attempts to provide broadband internet connectivity to governments, businesses, and consumers worldwide. Within the first 30 days of the prototype satellites’ flight from Florida on an Atlas 5 rocket operated by United flight Alliance, Amazon claimed a perfect success rate.
Amazon claimed to have ordered products via Amazon’s website, streamed a high-definition movie on Prime Video, and made quick two-way video chats using the prototype satellites. “There is still a lot of work ahead, and scaling for mass production won’t be simple,” Project Kuiper vice president of technology Rajeev Badyal stated. Amazon has been mandated by the US Federal Communications Commission to launch half of its planned constellation of more than 3,000 satellites by 2026.
Following the successful testing of the prototype, Badyal told Reuters that Amazon plans to begin construction of production-ready satellites next month, with a launch scheduled for the second quarter of 2024. Amazon would launch one rocket carrying a number of satellites, but Badyal would not reveal.
According to Badyal, he anticipates that the network would be ready to offer broadband service in certain regions of the globe by the end of 2024, with an early beta phase scheduled to start in early 2025.
Verizon and Vodafone, two of the early partners, will be the first telecom companies to beta test the service.
The largest commercial rocket procurement ever was revealed by Amazon last year when it announced a bulk launch deal for 83 launches from a variety of rocket companies, including Europe’s Arianespace, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and ULA.
United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed joint venture, plans to launch the first few Kuiper satellite batches using its Atlas 5 rocket and its next-generation Vulcan rocket.
Rival Starlink launches its network, which has expanded to about 5,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit since 2019, using its own in-house SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. This allows for nearly universal broadband coverage.
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