A launch of a batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband satellites took place today [July 16th], on a SpaceX rocket from Launch Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral. The launch (Mission KF-01) was handled on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and carried another 24 Kuiper satellites into orbit. The 27-minute launch window opened at 2:18am EDT.

The launch was one of more than 80 missions planned to carry the Kuiper constellation into orbit. Amazon’s initial satellite constellation will include more than 3,200 spacecraft, which it began deploying in April when it sent its first 27 satellites into space.

SpaceX will deploy the satellites at an altitude of 465km above Earth, at which point the Project Kuiper team will take over command of the mission from its mission operations centre in Redmond, Washington, complete initial satellite health checks, and ultimately raise the satellites to their assigned altitude of 630km.

Amazon says it plans to offer its Kuiper Internet service later in 2025. There will be three tiers of service and speeds up to 1 gigabit per second.

The tiers are:
· Ultra-compact satellite antenna that manages speeds of up to 100 megabits per second
· Standard antenna with speeds of up to 400 megabits per second
· Largest model with speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Satellite

Tags: Amazon, Project Kuiper, spacex