December 2024 – Cosmic Log

Amazon revs up for the internet satellite market

Get ready for Amazon’s Project Kuiper to pick up the pace in the megaconstellation space race.

So far, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite megaconstellation has dominated the market for broadband connectivity from low Earth orbit. In the nearly 10 years since SpaceX founder Elon Musk unveiled the project in Seattle, the Starlink network has attracted more than 5 million subscribers and more than $2 billion in U.S. government contracts (including work on the Starshield national security network).

But the year ahead promises to bring heightened competition: Like Starlink, Project Kuiper aims to offer high-speed internet access from the skies for hundreds of millions of people around the world who are currently underserved.

Following up on last year’s successful test of two prototype satellites, Amazon plans to begin launching operational Kuiper satellites in early 2025, with service due to begin by the end of the year. Pricing details haven’t yet been announced, but Amazon says “affordability is a key principle of Project Kuiper.”

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Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket passes its pre-launch test

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it’s put its orbital-class New Glenn rocket through its last major test in preparation for its first-ever launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

“All we have left to do is mate our encapsulated payload … and then LAUNCH!” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in an update posted to the X social-media platform.

Today’s integrated vehicle hotfire test took place just hours after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a five-year license for New Glenn launches and landings. The first launch hasn’t yet been officially scheduled but is likely to take place soon. “We are really close, folks,” Limp said in an earlier update on X.

New Glenn, which is named after the late astronaut and senator John Glenn, has been in the works for more than a decade. The first launch will send up Blue Origin’s Blue Ring Pathfinder, a demonstrator spacecraft that will test the communications, power and control systems for the company’s Blue Ring space mobility platform.

During today’s pre-launch rehearsal, all seven of New Glenn’s first-stage BE-4 engines fired simultaneously for 24 seconds while the booster was held down on the pad. The engines were brought up to 100% thrust for 13 of those seconds.

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