Amazon partners with Arianespace & others to launch satellites in space

The deal is also described as “the largest commercial procurement of launch vehicles in history,” according to Amazon.

Amazon’s planned internet-from-space initiative, Project Kuiper, announced today that it has scheduled dozens of new launches on three different rockets to place its future satellites in orbit. The satellites will be launched on powerful rockets developed by Arianespace, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

The combined flights, which will total 83 launches, will take place over a five-year period and will allow Project Kuiper to launch the majority of its 3,236 satellite constellation. According to James Watkins, a Project Kuiper spokesperson, Amazon did not disclose the cost of the launch contracts, but the company is investing billions of dollars across the three deals.

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The deal is also described as “the largest commercial procurement of launch vehicles in history,” according to Amazon. Project Kuiper will require a significant amount of rocketry to launch its future mega constellation into space. The Amazon subsidiary intends to launch a massive constellation of satellites into low Earth orbit, with the goal of providing low-latency broadband internet service to people all over the world.

Users must purchase one of Project Kuiper’s user antennas, which the company previewed in late 2020, in order to connect to the system. The terminals scan the sky for satellites that might be passing overhead. These satellites relay signals to and from user antennas from ground stations, which are already connected to existing fiberoptic internet infrastructure.

The concept is similar to SpaceX’s rapidly expanding Starlink programme, which involves a planned constellation of tens of thousands of satellites that will provide broadband internet from low Earth orbit. Project Kuiper, on the other hand, is several years behind Starlink. According to SpaceX, the company has launched over 2,000 satellites into orbit and has begun limited service around the world with 250,000 subscribers. None of the satellites in Project Kuiper have yet to launch.