The Kuiper project is the Internet initiative from space planned by Amazon, and has announced that it has booked dozens of new launches on three different rockets for put its future satellites into orbitsatellites that will fly on powerful rockets currently developed by the European launch provider Arianespacefrom the United Launch Alliance based in the United States, e Blue Originthe space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Combined flights, which will be up to 83 jumps in total, will take place over a period of five years and will allow the Kuiper project to launch most of its own planned constellation of 3,236 satellites. Amazon did not provide details on how much the launch contracts cost, but the company is investing billions of dollars in the three deals, according to James Watkins, a spokesperson for the Kuiper Project. Amazon also said the deal “is the largest commercial launch vehicle tender in history“.
The Kuiper project needs quite a few missiles to bring its future megaconstellation into space, and the Amazon subsidiary plans to create a wide range of satellites in low earth orbit. designed to deliver low latency broadband Internet services to all parts of the globeHowever, to tap into the system, users must purchase one of Project Kuiper’s user antennas, which the company premiered in late 2020.
How it works and the history of the Kuiper Project
The operation is simple, the terminals scan the sky for satellites above their heads, after which these satellites transmit signals from ground stations – structures already connected to the existing fiber optic Internet infrastructure – to and from users’ antennas, and the game is done; a concept that is quite similar to SpaceX’s ever-growing Starlink program, a planned constellation of tens of thousands of satellites also designed to deliver broadband internet from low earth orbit, yet Starlink is already a few years ahead of the Kuiper Project .
Until now, SpaceX has launched more than 2,000 satellites into orbit and started limited service worldwide, with 250,000 subscribers so far connected to the system, at least according to what the company said, while the Kuiper project has not yet launched any of its satellites.
However, the company hopes to change that this year. A year ago, Amazon announced it had purchased nine United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches to send batches of satellites into orbit, and in November, the Kuiper Project revealed its plans to launch its first two prototype satellites on a new experimental rocket called RS1 developed by the startup ABL Space Systems.
The company expects the first prototype flights to take place in the fourth quarter of 2022, with a satellite prototype flying on each RS1 rocket, however this is dependent on the RS1 being ready on time, due to ABL Space Systems having undergone a test crash during the rocket’s development in January, which set the company’s history back three months, according to Space News.
Nothing has changed regarding Project Kuiper’s deal with ABL Space Systems, according to Watkins, once the first prototype launches have taken place, Project Kuiper will have the option of flying either the Atlas V or the three rockets in its new agreement. The agreement covers the launches of three rockets still under development: Arianespace’s Ariane 6, ULA’s Vulcan rocket and Blue Origin’s New Glenn, with the Project booking 38 launches with ULA, 18 with Arianespace And at least 12 with Blue Origin (with the possibility of buying another 15 from the latter).
None of the three rockets have yet to be launched, and all three have been delayed for years beyond their target debut, as of now, both Arianespace and ULA plan to launch their rockets in late 2022, while Blue Origin has no plans to fly. New Glenn until 2023 at the earliest.
Among the five rockets that Amazon has used to launch its satellites, the Atlas V is the only rocket currently in operation, and when the Arianespace, ULA and Blue Origin rockets begin to fly, they should have much higher carrying capacities than to Atlas V, allowing Amazon to place multiple satellites on one rocket at a time, however Project Kuiper is not yet disclosing how many of its rockets can be mounted on each vehicle.
First, Amazon has to launch its prototypes with ABL, later the company will change the design of its final satellites before launching them in batches, but Amazon won’t say which rocket order it will use, but now the company has potentially more than 90 different launches in between. to choose.
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