Amazon To Launch First Kuiper Satellites In Challenge To Starlink

In a statement, Amazon said it will launch the Kuiper Atlas 1 mission on 9 April at 4pm GMT 6pm SAST from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

An Atlas 5 rocket from the Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture, United Launch Alliance, will send the satellites to space, as part of a giant multi-launch deal Amazon signed in 2022.

The mission will kick off Amazons full-scale deployment of Kuiper, a mesh-like network designed to top 3 000 satellites in low-Earth orbit that will provide high-speed internet globally and rival SpaceXs Starlink.

Weve done extensive testing on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things you can only learn in flight, and this will be the first time weve flown our final satellite design and the first time weve deployed so many satellites at once, Rajeev Badyal, Amazons Kuiper vice president, said in a statement.

No matter how the mission unfolds, this is just the start of our journey, and we have all the pieces in place to learn and adapt as we prepare to launch again and again over the coming years, he added.