Amazon will launch two Venture Kuiper take a look at satellites into area on Friday, October sixth. The pair of satellites — dubbed KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 — will shoot into area aboard the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket as a part of Amazon’s web satellite tv for pc initiative.
The launch will take from the Area Launch Advanced 41 on the Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Florida, with the two-hour launch window opening at 2PM ET. In response to the Venture Kuiper crew, the Atlas V rocket will deploy the 2 satellites at an altitude of 311 miles, the place they’ll enter low-earth orbit.
From there, the Venture Kuiper crew will carry out varied checks to ascertain first contact with the satellites, in addition to deploy photo voltaic arrays to generate energy. As soon as the satellite tv for pc system is linked to the web, the crew will try and ship info between the satellites and a buyer terminal right here on Earth. Amazon says it can “actively deorbit” the satellites on the finish of the mission, letting them deplete within the Earth’s ambiance.
“We’ve accomplished in depth testing right here in our lab and have a excessive diploma of confidence in our satellite tv for pc design, however there’s no substitute for on-orbit testing,” Rajeev Badyal, Venture Kuiper’s vice chairman of know-how, says in an announcement. “That is Amazon’s first time placing satellites into area, and we’re going to study an unbelievable quantity no matter how the mission unfolds.”
Regardless of this setback, Amazon says its first manufacturing satellites might nonetheless launch within the first half of 2024, with beta testing beginning on the finish of 2024. The corporate ultimately goals to have a constellation of over 3,200 in low Earth orbit, placing it on a path to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink, which presently has over 4,000 satellites in area.
