The first satellite lot of the Amazon Kuiper project will be put in orbit next week in a launch scheduled from the Cabo Cañaveral Space Station aboard a Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA).
The Kuiper project is the name of the satellite Internet solution that Amazon is developing. Although it is delayed on the Spacex Starlink that leads these developments, the electronic commerce giant and the more than 10,000 million dollars that it will invest will be in the future a great competition for the Elon Musk program.
In front of the Starlink that has its own pitchers, Amazon and other companies that intend to provide new satellite Internet solutions, such as the European ones who applied to provide an eventual replacement to the operations of Elon Musk’s firm, do not have them. Amazon has hired heavy load releases with several specialized firms, which should provide sufficient capacity to Locate the 3,200 satellites that the company projects in land orbit.
The first releases will begin next April 9 With the KA-01 mission (Kuiper Atlas 1), which will display 27 satellites in a low orbit with an altitude of 450 kilometers. If everything goes as projected, as explained by Rajev Badyal, vice president of the Kuiper project: “We have performed numerous tests on land to prepare this first mission, but there are things that are only learned on the flight”.
The mission will begin the large -scale deployment of the Amazon Kuiper, a mesh type network Designed to overcome the 3,200 satellites in low terrestrial orbit that will provide high -speed internet worldwide and rival the Spacex Starlink and others.
“Regardless of how the mission develops, this is only the beginning of our trip, and we have everything ready to learn and adapt while we prepare to launch ourselves again and again in the coming years”Badyal added.
The advantages of Amazon Kuiper
Amazon has taken longer to start his satellite Internet project, but considers that his dominant web services business and his consumer products experience They will be an advantage over Spacex to attract customers and manufacture consumer terminals.
This is where the special receptors that will be necessary to collect the signal enter and that Amazon already presented. The network will not need the antennas of a NASA telescope to collect the signal because the designs are quite reduced in size, especially those destined for households. Amazon has not yet defined the monthly cost of each of the services it will offer or how much exactly the antennas will cost, except that the standard receiver will have a Price less than $ 400. The company refers to the cost of production, not to the final price for the final customer.
When the project is underway, the company promises connection speeds superior to that of Starlink (up to 1 Tbps) and to be able to attend a number of potential clients between 300 and 400 million. Amazon not only seeks broadband subscribers. As with your own brand hardware, which is sold almost at cost price, the company expects to accumulate more customers who use their services, make more orders or pay for their streaming services.
