Amazon’s race to problem SpaceX in orbit is getting a serving to hand from its chief competitor: SpaceX, which can launch the subsequent batch of Amazon’s Undertaking Kuiper web satellites skyward on Wednesday.
A flock of 24 Kuiper web satellites will experience aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket earlier than daybreak. The mission, dubbed KF-01, has a 27-minute launch window that opens at 2:18 a.m. ET and can raise off from Cape Canaveral House Pressure Station. As soon as full, it should carry the full variety of Kuiper satellites on orbit to 78. Amazon finally plans to deploy greater than 3,200 spacecraft in its first-generation constellation in low Earth orbit, aiming to stake a severe declare within the satellite tv for pc web market — a market that’s at present dominated by Starlink’s community of roughly 8,000 satellites.
Whereas Kuiper and SpaceX could make for unusual bedfellows, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon inked a three-launch deal with SpaceX again in December 2023. That settlement got here scarcely two months after the e-commerce large confronted a lawsuit from shareholders over an earlier choice to not contemplate SpaceX when it doled out its first spherical of profitable launch contracts, despite the fact that the Falcon 9 is essentially the most dependable rocket flying immediately.
The catch is, at the least half of Kuiper’s preliminary constellation should be deployed by the tip of July 2026, per its license from the U.S. Federal Communications Fee. The clock is ticking: among the many different chosen launch suppliers — United Launch Alliance (ULA), Arianespace, and Blue Origin — solely ULA has an operational rocket out there to hold satellites to orbit. ULA launched the primary two batches of Kuiper satellites; the primary batch launched in April.
Blue Origin, Bezos’ different firm, will ultimately carry Kuiper satellites on its huge New Glenn rocket, nevertheless it has solely flown as soon as to date, and it didn’t handle to recuperate the booster. The second launch is at present scheduled for August 15.
