To compete with Musk’s Starlink, Amazon launches two satellites

Amazon launched two satellites on Friday in an attempt to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink firm to provide internet access from space. At 2:06 local time (6:06 GMT), Cape Canaveral in Florida launched the satellites into space.

Two satellites were launched by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) business organization, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, according to an AFP report.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, stated that Project Kuiper will use a constellation of more than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) to deliver quick and inexpensive broadband to unserved and underserved regions all over the world.

The vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, Rajeev Badyal, stated: “We’ve done extensive testing here in our lab and have a high degree of confidence in our satellite design, but there’s no substitute for on-orbit testing.”

Arianespace, ULA, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have agreed to deliver 77 heavy-lift launches for the organization, which has committed to investing $10 billion in the project.

The Kuiper project’s initial operational satellites are expected to be launched in early 2024, and Amazon expects conducting client trials by the end of the following year.

According to AFP, the test on Friday aimed to make contact between the probes and Earth, deploy their solar panels, and verify that all of the instruments were functioning properly and at temperatures that were suitable.

Even the most remote and underserved regions of the world, such as those that have recently experienced a natural disaster or a war, can now access the internet thanks to these services.

This came after Elon Musk’s SpaceX, by far the biggest player, launched the first batch of its more than 3,700 operational Starlink satellites in 2019.

When it was revealed that Musk owns Starlink and that he declined to turn on the service for a planned strike by Kyiv forces on Russia’s Black Sea navy fleet last year, it sparked outrage in Ukraine last month.