Amazon’s race to problem SpaceX in orbit is getting a serving to hand from its chief competitor: SpaceX, which can launch the following batch of Amazon’s Undertaking Kuiper web satellites skyward on Wednesday.
A flock of 24 Kuiper web satellites will journey aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket earlier than daybreak. The mission, dubbed KF-01, has a 27-minute launch window that opens at 2:18 a.m. ET and can carry off from Cape Canaveral House Pressure Station. As soon as full, it should deliver the entire variety of Kuiper satellites on orbit to 78. Amazon finally plans to deploy greater than 3,200 spacecraft in its first-generation constellation in low Earth orbit, aiming to stake a critical declare within the satellite tv for pc web market — a market that’s at present dominated by Starlink’s community of roughly 8,000 satellites.
Whereas Kuiper and SpaceX might make for unusual bedfellows, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon inked a three-launch take care of SpaceX again in December 2023. That settlement got here scarcely two months after the e-commerce large confronted a lawsuit from shareholders over an earlier resolution to not think about SpaceX when it doled out its first spherical of profitable launch contracts, though the Falcon 9 is probably the most dependable rocket flying at the moment.
The catch is, no less than half of Kuiper’s preliminary constellation should be deployed by the top of July 2026, per its license from the U.S. Federal Communications Fee. The clock is ticking: among the many different chosen launch suppliers — United Launch Alliance (ULA), Arianespace, and Blue Origin — solely ULA has an operational rocket obtainable to hold satellites to orbit. ULA launched the primary two batches of Kuiper satellites; the primary batch launched in April.
Blue Origin, Bezos’ different firm, will ultimately carry Kuiper satellites on its large New Glenn rocket, nevertheless it has solely flown as soon as to date, and it didn’t handle to recuperate the booster. The second launch is at present scheduled for August 15.
