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Title: Amazon Set To Launch First Operational Satellites For Project Kuiper
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Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/04/03/0237...
Amazon and United Launch Alliance will launch 27 full-scale satellites on
April 9 as part of Amazon's Project Kuiper, marking the company's first major
step toward building a global satellite internet network to rival SpaceX's
Starlink. GeekWire reports: ULA said the three-hour window for the Atlas V
rocket's liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch
Complex 41 in Florida is scheduled to open at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) that day.
ULA is planning a live stream of launch coverage via its website starting
about 20 minutes ahead of liftoff. Amazon said next week's mission -- known
as Kuiper-1 or KA-1 (for Kuiper Atlas 1) -- will put 27 Kuiper satellites
into orbit at an altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers). ULA launched two
prototype Kuiper satellites into orbit for testing in October 2023, but KA-1
will mark Amazon's first full-scale launch of a batch of operational
satellites designed to bring high-speed internet access to millions of people
around the world. [...] According to Amazon, the Kuiper satellite design has
gone through significant upgrades since the prototypes were launched in 2023.
Amazon's primary manufacturing facility is in Kirkland, Wash., with some of
the components produced at Project Kuiper's headquarters in nearby Redmond.
The mission profile for KA-1 calls for deploying the satellites safely in
orbit and establishing ground-to-space contact. The satellites would then use
their electric propulsion systems to settle into their assigned orbits at an
altitude of 392 miles (630 kilometers), under the management of Project
Kuiper's mission operations team in Redmond. Under the current terms of its
license from the Federal Communications Commission, Amazon is due to launch
3,232 Kuiper satellites by 2029, with half of those satellites going into
orbit by mid-2026.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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