Time.news – Amazon wants to launch its first two prototypes of satellites for an Internet connection network from space in early 2023. To do this, it will use a new Vulcan Centaur rocket from the United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed. Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2 will be the first to be launched and will be part of the company’s Kuiper network: a constellation of 3,236 satellites designed to broadcast broadband Internetin the most remote areas of the world, not covered or not very covered by the Net.
The multinational did not say when it expects the first satellites to be operational (US communications regulators require the company to deploy half of its constellation by 2026), but it already has an agreement with Verizon to serve as a connection for LTE repeaters. or remote 5G.
According to Jeff Bezos’ company, the launch will allow testing of its satellite network technology and starting work on data that “will help finalize the design, implementation and operational plans for our commercial satellite system.” The company announced it would launch prototypes in the fourth quarter of 2022, using a completely different rocket from a company called ABL Space Systems.
The start of 2023 isn’t too far off, but there are still many things that need to go right for the launch to happen on schedule. Amazon must actually finish building the satellites, which it claims will be completed by the end of the year. The rocket is also not finished yet. United Launch Alliance has made it known that expects to have the Vulcan rocket fully assembled by November and tested by December. He has yet to install the engines as of now. For Vulcan it is the first launch.
Amazon plans to invest $ 10 billion in the Kuiper project to catch up with SpaceX’s Starlink network, which already offers Internet services to thousands of customers in dozens of countries.