Amazon’s second fleet of web satellites now has a goal launch date.
The stack of 27 satellites, a part of Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation, is scheduled to launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket subsequent Friday (June 13).
Liftoff of the mission, often called Kuiper 2, is about for two:29 p.m. EDT (1829 GMT), from Area Launch Advanced-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, ULA announced.
Atlas V will launch the Kuiper satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO), the place they may maneuver to hitch a small however rising constellation of satellites that can supply wi-fi, high-speed web to clients inside the fleet’s vary of operation.
The supply of the Kuiper 2 satellites will double the scale of Amazon’s present constellation, to 54.
ULA launched the Kuiper 1 mission on April 28. The corporate known as it a “new starting” in a May 28 post that hinted that the launch date for Kuiper 2 was nearing.
Kuiper missions 1 and a pair of are the primary of 83 deliberate launches to assist develop Amazon’s Kuiper constellation. Not all of them will fly on the Atlas V, nevertheless; Amazon plans to launch batches of Kuiper satellites aboard ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket, Arianespace’s Ariane 6 and Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
The Venture Kuiper constellation will ultimately harbor more than 3,200 satellites, if all goes in accordance with plan. That can nonetheless be far fewer than SpaceX’s rival Starlink broadband constellation, which already gives service to clients all over the world. Starlink at the moment consists of more than 7,600 operational satellites, and it is rising on a regular basis.
However Amazon’s web structure differs from that of Starlink, so the corporate might not have to rival SpaceX in sheer satellite tv for pc numbers to supply comparable service. Venture Kuiper will mix its LEO constellation with a world community of floor stations and on-Earth infrastructure operating Amazon Net Companies, in accordance with Amazon’s website.
The engineers of Venture Kuiper are additionally targeted on sustainability. Kuiper satellites are designed to reduce the danger of orbital debris, the corporate says. They’re additionally working with astronomers on methods to scale back the satellites’ visibility and interference with astronomical analysis and normal stargazing.
In a post on X asserting the Kuiper 2 launch date, ULA indicated that the mission was nonetheless pending vary approval. The June 13 launch window for Atlas V opens at 2:29 p.m. EDT (1829 GMT) and can final for half-hour. If it is accessible, Area.com will stream the ULA launch for Amazon on our homepage, starting shortly earlier than liftoff.