Amazon Launches 27 Satellites in First Challenge to SpaceX and Starlink
Satellite internet score today is Amazon: 27, SpaceX: 7,100.
In October 2023, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) took one small step toward chasing SpaceX's giant leap... of building a broadband satellite internet constellation circling the Earth.
On October 6 that year, a United Launch Alliance (that's Boeing and Lockheed Martin) Atlas V rocket blasted off carrying Amazon's experimental Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2 to a 500-kilometer orbit above Earth, aiming to test the satellites' performance preparatory to beginning full-scale satellite production, and building a full constellation of 3,236 internet satellites. At the time, Amazon anticipated beginning full-scale deployment of Project Kuiper in H1 2024 and beginning "early customer pilots in the second half of 2024."
But Amazon is behind schedule.
