Amazon’s Project Kuiper launching first internet satellites in Q4

On Nov 2, 2021

A rendering of ABL Space’s RS1 rocket launching Project Kuiper satellites for Amazon.

Amazon

Amazon aims to launch its first Project Kuiper internet satellites in the fourth quarter of 2022, the company announced Monday.

The technology giant filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission to launch and operate its first two prototype satellites, called KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2. Amazon said the satellites will launch with ABL Space on its RS1 rocket.

“We’ll soon be ready to see how [the satellites] perform in space,” Amazon vice president of technology Rajeev Badyal said in a statement. “There is no substitute for on-orbit testing, and we expect to learn a lot given the complexity and risk of operating in such a challenging environment.”

Project Kuiper is Amazon’s plan to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The FCC last year authorized Amazon’s system, which the company says it plans to “invest more than $10 billion” in Kuiper. Early service from Kuiper is set to begin once Amazon has 578 satellites in orbit.

Amazon last week announced a partnership with Verizon, to collaborate with the telecom giant in the increasingly competitive field of high-speed satellite internet.

Kuiper is poised to go toe-to-toe with SpaceX’s Starlink network, which is the furthest along in the latest generation of broadband satellite systems. A variety of other networks are in various stages of development, including those of British-owned OneWeb, BlackRock-backed Astranis, satellite-to-smartphone specialist AST SpaceMobile, Lockheed Martin’s partnership with start-up Omnispace and Canadian satellite operator Telesat’s Lightspeed.

The Project Kuiper team has grown steadily at Amazon, which now has more than 750 people and “hundreds more” expected to be hired in the next year. Amazon built a 219,000 square-foot facility in Redmond, Washington to test and manufacture the satellites, and plans to add another 20,000 square-foot facility.

The prototype satellites

Launching and testing KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 a year from now represents one of the next major milestones in the development of Amazon’s system.

The pair of satellites are intended to test Amazon’s communications and networking infrastructure, connecting with the company’s ground stations based in Texas, South America and Asia-Pacific.

“KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 will include much of technology and sub-systems that power the production version of our satellite design – phased array and parabolic antennas, power and propulsion systems, custom-designed modems and more,” Amazon said in a blog post.

Amazon also plans to test early customer satellite dishes at the location in McCulloch, Texas. The company described the antenna as a “low-cost customer terminal” that will provide “reliable service at a more affordable price than legacy antennas,” having conducted early testing of prototype equipment late last year.

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