Starlink rival slips again, but service still set for 2025
The first full-scale mission of Amazon's Project Kuiper has slipped to the end of 2024, a year after the company finally got its prototype satellites into orbit.regarding its satellite manufacturing facility in Kirkland, Washington, Amazon said:"We're targeting our first full-scale Kuiper mission for Q4 aboard an Atlas V rocket from ULA.
Amazon has nine Atlas V launches on the books. The first was used for the Project Kuiper Protoflight mission, which launched a pair of satellites into orbit on October 6, 2023. The second is now penciled in for the first full-scale mission. The remaining launches are tentatively scheduled for 2025. However, Kuiper Systems will face competition from ViaSat and Boeing's Starliner for Atlas V launch slots from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 41 pad.
Project Kuiper will also be using Blue Origin's New Glenn and Arianespace's Ariane 6, both of which have yet to make their maiden launches, and SpaceX to build out its Low Earth Orbit satellite broadband network. Amazon says the constellation will consist of 3,236 satellites. The first two prototype satellites are in the process of lowering their orbits prior to disposal in the Earth's atmosphere. In May, Amazonit planned to lower the satellites to an altitude of 217 miles "at which point atmospheric demise will follow.", the company is required to launch half of its satellites by July 30, 2026, and the rest by July 2029.
At peak capacity, the Kirkland factory can build up to five Project Kuiper satellites per day, and Amazon expects the first completed production satellites to be shipped later this summer."We will continue to increase our rates of satellite production and deployment heading into 2025, and we remain on track to begin offering service to customers next year.
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