Amazon just extended its influence into space by sending its first two Internet satellites into orbit, a key step in building a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites that it hopes will compete with Amazon’s Starlink system. SpaceX to provide online access to millions of people who lack it.
Here it is, more than four years after the tech giant announced its ambitious plan to invest heavily in building a global satellite internet network, Amazon organized the launch into space of the first pair of satellites on Friday.
Two prototype Amazon satellites were launched aboard an Atlas V rocket to the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida on Friday. They are part of Project Kuiper, a communications constellation that is expected to eventually include more than 3,200 satellites. It will compete directly with SpaceX’s Starlink and other space-based internet services.
Kuiper wants to do better than Elon Musk’s Starlink
Starlink, the project led by Elon Musk, already has around 5,000 satellites in low Earth orbit and has been deployed to residential and commercial customers for several years now. Amazon therefore has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to hope to end Starlink’s near-monopoly on this market.
As for SpaceX’s Starlink, customers will be able to use Kuiper Internet by purchasing individual terminals. This prototype mission will test how the satellites interact with these terminals, as well as the ground systems that the satellites will use to communicate with Earth.
Amazon therefore wants to launch its first production satellites during the first half of next year and begin beta testing with customers by the end of 2024. The problem is that the company will have to chain together launches at a sustained pace. In particular, it must have put into orbit at least half of the constellation planned by 2026 to comply with the spectrum license granted to it by the United States Federal Communications Commission.
For now, information about the size and design of Amazon’s pair of satellites is scarce, with the company having only shared photos of the shipping containers that transported the spacecraft to Florida. So it remains to be seen when Amazon will share more details with consumers.