SpaceX Just Launched Amazon’s 24 Kuiper Satellites—And the Space Internet Wars Just Got Hotter

SpaceX fires another salvo in the satellite broadband arms race—this time, as an unlikely taxi service for its rival.

Amazon’s Kuiper constellation gets a lift

In a plot twist Elon Musk probably grumbled about between rocket landings, SpaceX just successfully deployed 24 of Amazon’s prototype Kuiper satellites to orbit. The launch marks a rare instance of cooperation between two tech giants locked in a battle for the skies—and more importantly, for lucrative government broadband contracts.

Numbers don’t lie: With this launch, Amazon’s Project Kuiper takes one step closer to challenging SpaceX’s Starlink dominance. But at $10B+ for the full constellation, shareholders might wonder if Bezos is over-indexing on ‘moonshots’ while AWS growth slows.

The real winner? SpaceX’s launch division—happy to take Amazon’s money while Musk’s own satellites maintain first-mover advantage.

Kuiper’s initial ULA deployment of 54 satellites remains healthy  

The Kuiper team confirmed on July 15 that its initial deployment of 54 broadband satellites was healthy and fully operational. The ULA launched Kuiper’s first 27 spacecraft into its low Earth orbit satellite network on April 28 aboard the ULA Atlas V rocket. The Atlas V lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station–Launch Complex 41, Florida, at 7:01 PM EDT. All 27 satellites were successfully released 36 minutes later at approximately 450 KM above Earth. Kuiper’s mission control established contact with all devices 90 minutes after the launch for a health check of all systems and subsystems, and final positioning.  

The second Kuiper mission (KA-02) deployed another batch of 27 internet satellites carried to low Earth orbit by the ULA Atlas V rocket. The June 23 launch began at 6:54 AM EDT from Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. ULA said the mission marked Amazon’s next step in providing fast internet connections to underserved and unserved communities worldwide. 

“We are proud to continue our strong partnership with Amazon and empower their mission to bridge the digital divide through reliable satellite technology.”

–Gary Wentz, Vice President of Government and Commercial Programs at ULA

Wentz pointed out that ULA was a catalyst and collaborated with Amazon to advance global internet connectivity. He added that ULA WOULD enable the delivery of nearly half of all 3.2K Project Kuiper’s satellites.

Badyal says Kuiper satellites are the best ever built

The Vice President of Project Kuiper, Rajeev Badyal, said his company had designed the “most advanced” communications satellites. He added that every launch was an opportunity to add to Kuiper’s network coverage and capacity. The Kuiper VP stressed that his team had carried out extensive and comprehensive testing to prepare for future missions. However, he also pointed out that some things were better understood through experience. 

Badyal asserted that this was the beginning of Kuiper’s long journey. He added that the company had all the pieces in place to adapt and learn over the coming years, regardless of how the missions unfolded. 

Amazon disclosed that the ULA and Kuiper teams will carry out seven more launches on the Atlas V rocket and about 38 missions on the larger Vulcan Centaur rocket. Over 30 other missions are planned through other launch providers, including Amazon’s own Blue Origin, Arianespace, and rival SpaceX.

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