CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Amazon\u2019s first batch of Internet satellites rocketed into orbit Monday, the latest entry in the mega constellation market currently dominated by SpaceX\u2019s thousands of Starlinks.
\nThe United Launch Alliance\u2019s Atlas V rocket carried up 27 of Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper satellites, named after the frigid fringes of our solar system beyond Neptune. Once released in orbit, the satellites will eventually reach an altitude of nearly 400 miles (630 kilometers).
\nTwo test satellites were launched in 2023, also by an Atlas V. Project officials said major upgrades were made to the newest version. The latest satellites also are coated with a mirror film designed to scatter reflected sunlight in an attempt to accommodate astronomers.
\nStargazers oppose the fast-growing constellations of low-orbiting satellites, arguing they spoil observations. Others fear more satellite collisions.
\nFounded by Jeff Bezos, who now runs his own rocket company, Blue Origin, Amazon aims to put more than 3,200 of these satellites into orbit to provide fast, affordable broadband service around the globe.
\nElon Musk\u2019s SpaceX already has launched more than 8,000 Starlinks since 2019. The company marked its 250th Starlink launch Sunday night. More than 7,000 Starlinks are still in orbit some 300-plus miles (550 kilometers) above Earth.
\nThe European-based OneWeb satellite constellation numbers in the hundreds in an even higher orbit.
\nAmazon already has purchased dozens of rocket launches from United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin for Project Kuiper, as well as others.
\n\u201cThere are some things you can only learn in flight\u201d despite extensive testing on the ground, said Rajeev Badyal, the project\u2019s vice president.
\n\u201cNo matter how the mission unfolds, this is just the start of our journey,\u201d he said in a statement ahead of the evening liftoff.
\nThe first liftoff attempt earlier this month was nixed by bad weather. It took until now to secure another spot in the launch lineup at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Amazon\u2019s first batch of Internet satellites rocketed into orbit Monday, the latest entry in the mega constellation market currently dominated by SpaceX\u2019s thousands of Starlinks. The United Launch Alliance\u2019s Atlas V rocket carried up 27 of Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper satellites, named after the frigid fringes of our solar system beyond Neptune. Once …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":80319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80320,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80305\/revisions\/80320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}