Project Kuiper prepares the launch of long -awaited operational satellite

Tampa, Florida – United Launch Alliance should loft the first 27 satellites of the more than 3,200 planned for the Amazon Kuiper Broadband constellation project on April 9, about a year late while the company rushes to respect the deployment deadlines.

Amazon said that on April 2, he was preparing to launch his first batch of satellites for a low terrestrial orbit on an Atlas V rocket from the Space Force Cape Canaveral station, in Florida, as part of a mission nicknamed Ka-01 (Kuiper Atlas 1).

Satellites have significant upgrades on two ULA prototypes launched on an atlas V in 2023, according to Amazon, including improved progressive table antennas, processors, solar networks, propulsion and inter-satellite optical links.

The successful orbit prototype tests gave Amazon confidence that he could start deploying operational satellites, built in an installation in Kirkland, Washington, in the first half of 2024, allowing beta trials with potential customers such as Verizon and Vodafone later that year.

The company did not comment on what caused a delay that pushed potential beta services in 2025.

Amazon must also deploy half of the constellation by July 2026 under the deployment rules linked to its license of the Federal Commission Commission, and the rest by July 2029.

“We carried out in-depth tests on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are things that you can only learn in flight, and it will be the first time that we had managed our final satellite conception and the first time that we have deployed so many satellites at the same time,” said the vice-president of the project Kuiper, Rajeev Badely, in a blog article.

“No matter how the mission takes place, this is only the start of our trip, and we have all the pieces in place to learn and adapt when we are preparing to launch again and again in the coming years.”

Stage launch

Amazon said Ka -01 would be the heaviest payload ever piloted on a V Atlas V, which will use its most powerful configuration – five solid rockets plus the main booster – to deploy satellites 450 kilometers above the earth.

The ULA is under contract to steal seven more Atlas VS for the Kuiper project, and 38 launch using its greatest Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Tory Bruno, CEO of Ula, recently projected a dozen launches this year for Amazon and other customers, separated between Atlas V and Vulcan, the company’s new generation rocket which underwent an anomaly during its second flight in October.

The launch arrangement of several billion dollars from Amazon for the Kuiper project also includes three SpaceX Falcon 9 missions, 18 Ariane 6 launches from Arianespace and up to 27 new Glenn Roquettes from Blue Origin.

However, Arianespace only projects four other flights this year for Ariane 6, her new generation rocket that made her first commercial flight in March.

Meanwhile, Blue Origin is waiting for the next flight to New Glenn at the end of spring, after the end of an investigation into the landing of Booster missed on his first flight earlier this year.

“Our next launch will be on another Atlas V, and we are already shipping and treating satellites for this Ka-02 mission,” said an Amazon spokesperson by e-mail.

“We will share more details closer to the launch. Overall, we plan to continue accelerating our pace of operations from here, and we are on the right track to start providing customers later this year.”

The flagship satellite operator of Japan Sky Perfect JSAT and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, which has telecommunications operators in the country, have also joined forces to sell Kuiper project services with local businesses and government organizations.

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