Amazon Launches Project Kuiper Satellites: Competition with SpaceX’s Starlink

Oct 6, 2023 at 9:18 PM Update: 31 minutes ago

Amazon has launched the first two satellites for its Project Kuiper. The online store and tech company wants to set up a network of thousands of satellites to provide internet services on Earth. This puts them in competition with Starlink from Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The satellites launched from Florida on Friday are prototypes. With this KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, Amazon wants to test whether it is possible to send and receive broadband signals. The company hopes to send a total of about 3,300 units into space.

The long-awaited launch of the first Amazon satellites was delayed several times. Actually, this should have happened last year. Amazon hoped to use a relatively new type of rocket for this, but the group ultimately opted for the more common Atlas 5 rocket from Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Several companies are working on setting up satellite networks to provide internet, especially in remote or sparsely populated areas. In Europe, for example, Eutelsat Oneweb is the answer to the initiatives of Amazon and SpaceX. The French-British merger company is working on a network of hundreds of satellites to provide internet.

China also has big plans in this area. The country wants to launch 13,000 satellites for the so-called GuoWang network. The Canadian Telesat is aiming for 300 satellites and the German startup Rivada is considering a network of 600 satellites.

July 22, 2023 at 10:31 am

Amazon is building a large building at NASA in Florida for its own huge satellite project

Beeld: Getty Images

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2023-10-06 19:18:42
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