2 days Ago By Simon Sharwood
Amazon’s first attempt to hoist production versions of its Project Kuiper broadband-beaming satellites appears to have succeeded. Jeff Bezos’ flying telco used an United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to send 27 of its satellites skywards and at 7:01PM Monday, Eastern Time, the craft left Cape Canaveral Space Force Station without incident. Just over five minutes later, the rocket made it into orbit and the flight team declared “early milestones” were achieved and all systems were nominal.
You can see the launch in this vid: Youtube Video There’s no word yet on whether the satellites are working – as is usual – and Amazon has not said when it will start to offer services, or the price it will charge. Some known facts about Kuiper include: Space-centric analyst firm Quilty Space thinks Amazon’s launch deal with Arianespace will cost it a further $2.5-3.
0 billion, and that the project will cost between $16.5 and $20 billion. By way of comparison, AWS plans to spend around $100 billion on datacenter and AI infrastructure during 2025.
Kuiper looks like a hobby by comparison. While news of a first launch will be welcomed at Amazon, the company is more than 7,200 satellites behind its rival SpaceX’s Starlink service, which is thought to have over four million subscribers and annual revenue ascending past $8 billion. And let’s not forget that Chinese concerns plan to launch over 30,000 broadband satellites.
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