Amazon’s race to problem SpaceX in orbit is getting a serving to hand from its chief competitor: SpaceX, which is able to launch the following batch of Amazon’s Mission Kuiper web satellites skyward on Wednesday.
A flock of 24 Kuiper web satellites will trip 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 elevate off from Cape Canaveral Area Power Station. As soon as full, it is going to convey the entire variety of Kuiper satellites on orbit to 78. Amazon in the end 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 the moment dominated by Starlink’s community of roughly 8,000 satellites.
Whereas Kuiper and SpaceX could make for unusual bedfellows, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon inked a three-launch cope with 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 determination to not take into account SpaceX when it doled out its first spherical of profitable launch contracts, regardless that the Falcon 9 is essentially the most dependable rocket flying right this moment.
The catch is, not 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 out there 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 finally 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 get better the booster. The second launch is at the moment scheduled for August 15.
