Amazon’s Starlink rival set to launch first two satellites
Amazon is scheduled to launch its first two Project Kuiper satellites — KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 — on Friday, 6 October 2023.
The launch marks the start of the space initiative, which will see a 3,236-satellite constellation launched into orbit. The first two satellites will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, US.
KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 will ride aboard United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) Atlas V rocket during a launch window with an 80% favourable weather forecast.
While the mission is essentially just a test launch for the satellites, which are both demos, it marks Amazon’s entry into the satellite broadband market.
It will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink system, which currently has 4,812 working satellites, and London-based OneWeb, which has 632 satellites in orbit.
Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, says the test launch will provide critical data, regardless of how it turns out.
“We’ve done extensive testing here in our lab and have a high degree of confidence in our satellite design, but there’s no substitute for on-orbit testing,” said Badyal.
“This is Amazon’s first time putting satellites into space, and we’re going to learn an incredible amount regardless of how the mission unfolds.”
In addition to testing how the satellites will cope in space, the test flight, dubbed Protoflight, will test all three components of Project Kuiper’s satellite broadband system — its advanced LEO broadband satellites, customer terminals, and ground-based communications network.
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