Amazon Claims Prototype Satellites for Kuiper Network Operating Successfully 6k42n Technology News

Amazon said it used prototype satellites for two-way video calls, streaming high-definition movie on Prime Video, ordering items off Amazon's website. 3e1o17

By Reuters | Updated: 16 November 2023 23:13 IST

Amazon Claims Prototype Satellites for Kuiper Network Operating Successfully

Photo Credit: Reuters 3v6d2p

Amazon expects to start building production-ready satellites next month

Highlights

Kuiper internet network is set to compete against Elon Musk's Starlink
Amazon said it had achieved a 100 percent success rate
Amazon last year announced a bulk launch deal for 83 launches

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Elon Musk's Starlink, the world's largest satellite operator, to offer broadband internet service globally to consumers, companies and governments. Amazon said it had achieved a 100 percent success rate within the first 30 days of the launch of the prototype satellites from Florida aboard an United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

Amazon said it used the prototype satellites for brief two-way video calls, streaming a high-definition movie on Prime Video and ordering items off Amazon's website. "We still have a lot of hard work ahead, and scaling for mass production won't be easy," said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper. The US Federal Communications Commission has required Amazon to deploy half of its more than 3,000-planned satellite constellation by 2026.

On the heels of the successful prototype tests, Amazon expects to start building production-ready satellites next month for a launch in the second quarter of 2024, Badyal told Reuters. Badyal declined to say how many satellites Amazon would launch per rocket.

Badyal said he expects the network will be capable of providing broadband coverage in some parts of the world by late 2024, for an early beta phase targeted to begin in early 2025.

Early partners like Vodafone and Verizon are set to become the first telecom firms to beta test the service.

Amazon last year announced a bulk launch deal for 83 launches — the largest commercial rocket procurement ever — from various rocket companies, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, ULA and Europe's Arianespace.

The Boeing-Lockheed t venture United Launch Alliance is set to loft the first several batches of Kuiper satellites aboard its Atlas 5 and the company's Vulcan rocket.

Rival Earth orbit, enabling near-global broadband coverage.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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