The United Launch Alliance (ULA) already delayed launch from April 10th and again on April 14th of a batch of Amazon Project Kuiper broadband satellites has now further delayed lift-off until April 28th.

Weather got in the way of the April 14th launch.

The new date should see the ULA Atlas V rocket lift off the first cluster of satellites, part of an eventual target of 3,276 craft, which will circle the planet and when fully deployed will provide competition to Elon Musk’s Starlink system.

The Kuiper 1 mission is the first of 46 launches by ULA for the Kuiper constellation using eight Atlas V and 38 Vulcan rockets.

The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km altitude. Project Kuiper’s satellite payload will be the heaviest payload ULA’s Atlas V rocket has ever flown. To accommodate it, ULA will be flying Atlas V in its most powerful configuration. The launch will cost $153 million.

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Satellite

Tags: Amazon, Project Kuiper, satellite, ULA