Observer by Sissi Cao 07/24/23
Project Kuiper expects to launch two prototype satellites ('KuiperSat-1' and 'KuiperSat-2') in the fourth quarter of 2023.More than four years after Jeff Bezos announced Amazon (AMZN)’s Project Kuiper, a satellite-based internet service meant to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, Amazon is finally taking a major step closer to launching its first satellites. The e-commerce giant said on July 21 it plans to spend $120 million on building a facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for processing and launching more than 3,200 Kuiper satellites as soon as next year. The facility, spanning 31,000 square meters, will be a spaceport used to prepare and integrate Kuiper satellites with Amazon’s many launch partners, including Bezos’s Blue Origin.
Amazon obtained a license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) back in July 2020 to deploy up to 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit, but hasn’t launched any. Under the FCC’s rules, Amazon needs to launch and operate half the constellation, or 1618 satellites, by July 2026 and the other half by July 2029. Those deadlines allow Amazon little time to get the Florida facility ready. The current construction timeline suggests the site won’t be operational until 2025. Amazon aims to begin a small-scale customer program, which will require more than 500 working satellites, before the end of 2024, and it may use a third-party launch site until the Florida spaceport is ready for use, a company spokesperson told SpacesNews.
Amazon manufactures Kuiper satellites at a factory in Kirkland, Wash. near the company’s Seattle headquarters. Kuiper expects to launch its first two prototype satellites—“KuiperSat-1” and “KuiperSat-2”—in the fourth quarter of this year.
More:
https://observer.com/2023/07/amazon-kuiper-satellite/
