Amazon’s first satellites were launched today on a mission aimed at testing out the hardware and software for the Seattle company’s worldwide Project Kuiper broadband internet constellation.
Two prototype satellites — known as KuiperSat 1 and 2 — rode a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida into space at 2:06 p.m. ET (11:06 a.m. PT).
United Launch Alliance provided updates on what it called the Protoflight mission via its X / Twitter account. In a post-launch statement, ULA declared the mission to be successful and said that the Atlas V “precisely” delivered the satellites to orbit.
The satellites were sent into 311-mile-high (500-kilometer-high) orbits with a 30-degree inclination. In a status update, Amazon said Project Kuiper’s mission operations center in Redmond, Wash., confirmed first contact with both satellites within an hour after launch.
“Five plus years in the making. So much care, persistence, boldness and beauty,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said in a posting to Instagram and Threads. “What an amazing endeavor. … Big milestone and much more to come!”
Project Kuiper, an ambitious program that was publicly unveiled in 2019, aims to provide broadband internet access — and satellite-based access to Amazon Web Services — to millions of people who are currently underserved.
Amazon plans to use the prototypes — which were built at Project Kuiper’s HQ in Redmond — to test the hardware on the spacecraft, as well as ground operations and customer terminals.
“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,” Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, said in a launch preview. “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.”
The results of the tests will factor into further preparations for building production-grade satellites at a factory that’s being set up in Kirkland, Wash. If all goes according to plan, mass production of thousands of satellites will begin early next year, and Amazon will make Project Kuiper service available on a beta testing basis to commercial partners by the end of 2024.
Launch of the prototypes had been delayed for a year due to logistical and technical schedule slips. Most recently, ULA switched the launch from its next-generation Vulcan rocket to the Atlas V, a workhorse rocket that’s nearing retirement.
Amazon is facing schedule pressure from at least two directions: First of all, the terms of Project Kuiper’s license from the Federal Communications Commission require Amazon to have at least half of the 3,236 satellites in its proposed constellation launched by mid-2026.
To meet that requirement, Amazon reserved scores of rocket launches — on Atlas V’s, Vulcans, Ariane 6’s and on the New Glenn rockets currently being developed by Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture.
Just as importantly, Amazon is trying to catch up with SpaceX and its Starlink satellite internet service, which already has more than 2 million customers.
Dave Limp — who is leaving his longtime post as Amazon’s chief of devices and services to become Blue Origin’s CEO in December — insisted last year during a live-streamed chat session that there’d be room enough in the marketplace for multiple broadband satellite constellations in low Earth orbit.
“I think more constellations is generally good,” he said. “I do think we have some benefits, though, in ours.”
He pointed to the synergies between Project Kuiper and Amazon’s other lines of business, including AWS. He also hinted that Project Kuiper will compete with Starlink on a price basis.
Amazon says it’s committed $10 billion to getting Project Kuiper off the ground. More than 1,000 employees are said to be working on the project, and Amazon’s careers website lists an additional 200-plus open positions — with most of those positions based in Washington state.
Back in 2019, Bezos was asked to identify one of Amazon’s recent “big bets,” and he didn’t hesitate to name Project Kuiper. Will that multibillion-dollar bet pay off? Today’s launch marked a significant step toward finding out.
