Amazon has finally launched its first batch of Project Kuiper satellites. This deployment, which was significantly delayed due to manufacturing slowdowns and last-minute launch cancelations, marks a major step in the development of Amazon’s satellite broadband internet service.
While this is a noteworthy moment for Project Kuiper, the details are actually somewhat unimpressive. Amazon sent just 27 satellites into low-Earth orbit—a fraction of the 3,236 satellites that will eventually be in its “constellation.” The company is required to place half of these satellites in orbit by July 30th, 2026, though at this pace, it may need to negotiate a new regulatory deadline with the FCC.
The maiden Project Kuiper deployment was actually supposed to happen last year, but Amazon struggled to secure an Atlas V rocket from the United Launch Alliance (a joint venture formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin). Evidently, the Bezos-owned Blue Origin couldn’t step up to the plate. And although SpaceX performs several hundred rocket launches each year, it seems that Amazon couldn’t line up a launch date with the Musk-owned company. Either that, or Amazon intentionally went a different contractor in an effort to avoid sharing headlines with SpaceX, which currently holds a monopoly on satellite-based broadband internet.
We also need to wait a few days to see whether this launch is successful or not. Amazon has yet to confirm initial contact with its 27 satellites at the time of writing—the company has had a lot of trouble manufacturing these satellites (only “a few dozen” were fully assembled as of April 6th), and we’ve seen SpaceX satellites fail in orbit, so Amazon is wise to hold off on the champagne.
Still, even with all these challenges, Amazon aims to begin providing Project Kuiper satellite-based broadband internet service after it gets 578 satellites into space, which will supposedly happen before the end of the year. But I’m not sure whether this is a realistic goal. Amazon has just five more missions lined up with the United Launch Association in 2025, and it’s not uncommon for flights to be delayed or canceled due to unfavorable conditions—Amazon already had to delay an April 9th flight because of bad weather.
Regardless of when it goes live, Project Kuiper will provide some much-needed competition in the satellite-based broadband internet market and bring some neat innovations, including an ultra-compact satellite receiver, to the world of consumer electronics. It’ll also serve as a powerful asset for the U.S. government and its allies—a role that SpaceX’s Starlink already fulfills in some capacity. That said, there are some footnotes to the latter point, as satellite internet is vulnerable to unique forms of warfare or hijacking. And despite the fact that these satellite-based internet ventures are heavily subsidized, they can defy Pentagon contracts with minimal repercussions. They’re fairly autonomous.
Environmental concerns are also part of this story. Rockets release a massive amount of black carbon and other pollutants into the upper atmosphere. We had just 87 rocket launches in 2015, but we’ve got 300 scheduled for 2025. Climate experts say that the environmental impact of rockets is still somewhat negligible, but if the number of annual flights continues to multiply, the black carbon that we’re dumping into the atmosphere will accelerate global warming and potentially reverse the recovery of our ozone layer.
Source: United Launch Alliance via Reuters
