The first of three Falcon 9 blast-offs comes years after investors filed a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of purposely avoiding using its rival for launches.
Amazon now has 78 Project Kuiper satellites in orbit, with the next blast off likely to take place in August on an ArianeSpace rocket.
“Falcon 9 deployed the satellites at an altitude of 289 miles (465 kilometres) above Earth, at which point the Kuiper team took over command of the mission from our mission operations centre in Redmond, Washington,” said Amazon.
“From there, we began to perform initial satellite health checks as we prepare to raise the satellites to their assigned altitude of 392 miles (630 km), where they will be fully commissioned as part of our operational satellite constellation.”
In 2023, Amazon investors filed a lawsuit claiming chief executive Andy Jassy “consciously and intentionally breached their most basic fiduciary responsibilities” by not initially choosing SpaceX for launches.
Amazon denied the claims, which it called “completely without merit”, before months later revealing it had signed a contract to fly three batches of Project Kupier satellites on Falcon 9s.
Meanwhile, over the next few years, Kuiper and ULA teams will conduct six more Atlas V launches and 38 launches on ULA’s larger Vulcan Centaur rocket. An additional 30-plus launches are planned with multiple launch companies to complete a final constellation of 3,200.
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The new constellations of Project Kuiper spacecraft feature significant upgrades, including phased array antennas, solar arrays and optical inter-satellite links.
Space Connect reported earlier this year how Project Kuiper was speculated to have emerged as the “leading candidate” to succeed the two NBN Sky Muster spacecraft, although a decision still needs to be signed off by federal government ministers.
The Australian GEO satellites, launched in 2015, are scheduled for decommissioning in 2032. However, customers have long complained that the service isn’t good enough to consistently handle video, and reports suggest thousands of customers have defected to Starlink.
LEO satellite constellations, such as Starlink, offer quicker services than traditional geostationary satellites, such as NBN Sky Muster, because they are closer to Earth.
The lower height, though, also means LEOs effectively cover a smaller area and, therefore, need to operate in larger, connected constellations to be effective.
Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX, has the advantage of being able to launch thousands of satellites without paying external customers because it operates its own reusable rockets.
It’s currently thought there are more than 7,500 Starlink satellites in orbit, with plans for a constellation of 40,000.
There are also plans for more rival services to Starlink and Project Kuiper, with Vocus recently announcing it would collaborate with Canadian satellite provider Telesat on a separate offering.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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