Topline
Amazon on Tuesday announced it had signed on with three firms—including Blue Origin, a company founded by Amazon Executive Chair Jeff Bezos— to book 83 launches of its Project Kuiper internet satellites in a deal the company described as the “largest commercial procurement” of launch vehicles in history.
Amazon’s regional headquarters in the Silicon Valley town of Sunnyvale, California
Key Facts
Amazon on Tuesday announced agreements with three companies, Arianespace, United Launch Alliance and Bezos’s company Blue Origin to launch the company’s Project Kuiper.
Amazon said it secured up to 83 launches in total to send low-flying earth satellites into orbit over a five-year period to deploy most of Project Kuiper’s planned 3,236-satellite constellation, which will provide high-speed internet service.
Big Number
More than $10 billion. That’s how much Amazon has said it plans to invest in Project Kuiper over the years.
Key Background
Amazon in 2019 announced it would launch Project Kuiper, a large broadband satellite internet constellation, to provide access to broadband internet, including those lacking access in remote areas. The Federal Communications Commission in 2020 authorized Amazon to deploy 3,236 broadband satellites, requiring at least half be launched by 2026, and the rest by 2029. Amazon has yet to deploy the satellites, although it has plans for two launches of prototype satellites for the fourth quarter of 2022 on ABL Space Systems’ RS1 Rocket. Amazon is investing billions of dollars in the new satellite contracts, a spokesperson said, according to the Verge. The project serves as a rival to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s Starlink Program, also set up to provide satellite internet access coverage. Starlink has already launched 2,335 satellites to date, according to data maintained by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Jonathan McDowell.
Further Reading
Amazon’s Project Kuiper books up to 83 rockets to launch its internet-beaming satellites (The Verge)
Amazon to Spend Billions on Space Launches as SpaceX Ramps Up Satellite-Internet Service (Wall Street Journal)
Amazon Is Going To Add 3,000 More Satellites Into Earth’s Orbit – And People Are Not Happy (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/04/05/amazon-signs-rocket-contracts-with-3-firms-including-bezos-blue-origin-for-multibillion-dollar-satellite-project/