AMAZON has made strides to have satellite internet service from space in a rising battle against Elon Musk’s Starlink – and is set to launch its first test satellites.
The mission is called Project Kuiper and the launch will occur on Friday at the Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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Project Kuiper will launch two satellites that have been named KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2.
The satellites will shoot into space with the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket at an altitude of 311 miles and will enter a low-earth orbit.
The launch will occur at 2pm ET with a two-hour launch window.
Once the rocket is in low-Earth orbit, the Project Kuiper team will perform various tests to achieve contact with the satellites.
They need to get the satellite to deploy solar arrays to generate power.
The main goal is to be able to send information between the satellites and the Amazon terminal on Earth.
Amazon was scheduled to test satellites earlier this year using the ULA’s new Vulcan rocket but it exploded and caused delays which led the team to decide to use the Atlas V rocket this time.
“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, Project Kuiper’s vice president of technology, said in a statement.
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“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.”
Once the testing is complete, Amazon plans to “actively deorbit” the satellites and let them burn up into Earth’s atmosphere.
Amazon hopes to have its first true satellites launched in early 2024 and beta testing at the end of 2024.
If everything is successful, Amazon wants to have 3,200 satellites in space for internet service.
TAKING ON ELON MUSK
The satellite internet service is intended to be similar to Musk’s Starlink.
Starlink currently provides internet coverage to over 60 countries and is aiming to reach a global mobile phone service.
There are currently more than 4,000 Starlink satellites in space.
Amazon’s space internet service will be right in line as a competitor to Starlink if it works out.
Starlink is available across the US and costs $120 a month in most locations.
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But you do have to pay a one-time hardware cost of $599.
It is unclear how much Amazon will charge for its space internet service currently.
