Amazon is providing a sneak peek at the satellites that are being shipped to Florida for the launch of its Project Kuiper broadband network — well, maybe not the satellites, but at least their containers.
“Late last year, we began shipping flight-ready satellites, and even more have been on their way in recent weeks,” the Project Kuiper team said in a posting to LinkedIn.
The first batch of production-level satellites is due for launch sometime in the next few months on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That’ll follow up on the successful testing of two prototype satellites that were launched on an Atlas V in October 2023.
Eventually, 3,232 satellites are slated to go into orbit to provide high-speed internet service. Under the terms of Amazon’s license from the Federal Communications Commission, half of those satellites are to be launched by mid-2026.
Project Kuiper would provide added competition for SpaceX’s Starlink network, which currently dominates the market for satellite broadband connectivity with 5 million subscribers. Amazon is planning to start rolling out Project Kuiper services by the end of this year.
