The Battle of Billionaires entered space between Jeff Bezos and Eileon Musk, a new square: the Internet online.
Amazon, the company that Mr. Bezos started as a seller on the Internet three decades ago, is now a commercial giant, James Bond concession, a seller of electronic tools such as Echo smart speakers and one of the most powerful service providers in cloud computing.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Amazon now launched the first number of satellites known as the Project Kuper to provide another option to stay in the modern world. It is currently dominating the Internet high -speed internet on Earth from Orbitt currently by Elon Musk’s Spacex Rocket, which runs a similar service, Starlink. Starlink, with thousands of satellites in orbit and more launch almost every week, already serves several million customers all over the world.
On Monday evening, the first 27 of the company’s satellites were shipped to space and published in orbit.
Amazon had no immediate comment after the launch. It will take several hours, if not days, to form the company and create a connection with all 27 satellites and know if they are working.
When was the launch?
The satellite started on Monday at 7:01 pm East time from Cape Capeeral Space Station in Florida. It was carried by A Atlas V, the UNITED Launch Alliance, a joint project between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The spacecraft was published in a circular orbit in a circular orbit, 280 miles above the surface. The satellite payment system will gradually raise this orbit to a height of 393 miles.
“This launch is the first step towards the future of our partnership and the increase in the rhythm at all,” Tori Bruno, CEO of UNICLANECE.
What is the Quiber project?
Project Kuper will be a constellation of internet moons that aim to provide high -speed data connections for almost every point on Earth. This will require this successful thousands of satellites, and the Amazon goal is to run more than 3200 in the coming years.
The company will compete with Starlink’s Spacex, a service that was originally marketed for residential customers.
While Kuiper also aims to this market, especially in remote areas, it will also be combined with Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing offer, which is popular with companies and large governments worldwide. This may make it more attractive for companies that include satellite images or weather prediction that not only needs to transfer large quantities of data online, but also to make accounts on data.
The ground stations will connect the Kuper satellite to web services in a way that can also allow companies to also communicate with their devices. For example, Amazon suggested that energy companies can use Kuper to monitor and control remote wind farms or drilling platforms abroad.
In October 2023, two Kuper satellites were launched to test technology. Amazon said that the tests were successful. These initial models were not intended to serve in the operating constellation, and after seven months they were pushed into the air, where they were burned. Company He said Since then, she updated the designs of “every system and sub -system on board.
“There is a big difference between the launch of two satellites and the launch of 3000 satellites,” said Rajev Badiel, an executive official of Amazon, who is in charge of Koyber, in a promotional video before the launch.
When will Amazon provide internet service from space?
Amazon told the Federal Communications Committee in 2020 that the service will begin after it published the first 578 satellites. The company said it expects to connect customers to the Internet later this year.
While a constellation works at full capacity needs thousands of satellites, the company can provide service in much specific areas per orbit before expanding to more global coverage at a later time.
The approval of the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) came to a constellation with the condition that half of the satellites be deployed at least by July 30, 2026. Industry analysts say the company can get an extension if it has shown great progress at that time.
The introduction of satellites in orbit also depends on the launch of the missiles that occur on the specified date, which may be a problem if the missiles are not enough. Amazon also needs to build hundreds of ground stations, to transfer its signals to users.
Is the space very crowded for both Spacex and Amazon?
In 2000, there were less than 1,000 satellites in the Earth’s orbit.
Today, SpaceX runs alone more than 7000 of the stars box satellite, and hopes to increase this total to 42000.
Other huge maturity, including Project Kuiper, can multiply the number of satellites in the area called low -Earth orbit several times, and will require monitoring of an accurate tropical movement to avoid collision with each other or with other debris in the low Earth orbit.
But satellites such as Kuiper and Starlink do not remain in the orbit of the lowland indefinitely. At the end of their service life, it is deliberately removed from orbit to combustion in the air. Even if they fail, the air resistance alone will attract them to destroy them within a few years so that they do not add to the long -term chaos of the area.
What other missiles will kuper to orbit?
In April 2022, Amazon announced that it was buying up to 83 at the end of the Kuper satellite, on a series of Rockets. Some were flying on New Glen, a strong missile, written by Jeff Bezos, the Blue Asset Company. Others were lifting Volcan, a new missile from the United Launch Alliance. Other batches will travel on Ariane 6 from ArianesPace, a European missile company.
These three vehicles are new, and only a few times have been launched.
In December 2023, Amazon also bought three Falcon 9 launch operations of 2025 from the Kuper’s direct competitor. This decision was taken months after a lawsuit was filed on the pension fund, saying that the company’s Board of Trustees may be spent in bad faith in the arrangement of almost all Kuper’s launches on unpaid missiles with falcon 9, which is the dominant missile in the light of modern space and is likely to be less expensive.