Tag: Amazon
-
Amazon’s Kuiper satellites are good to go after FCC’s approval of orbital debris plan
Artwork shows ULA’s Vulcan rocket lifting off with Amazon’s Kuiper satellites. (Amazon Illustration) The Federal Communications Commission says Amazon’s 3,236-satellite Project Kuiper constellation is fully cleared for deployment after the company filed an acceptable plan for dealing with the risks of orbital debris. This week’s order follows up on the conditional approval that the FCC…
-
“Alexa, turn on the lights”; Lockheed Martin, Amazon, Cisco test virtual assistant, deep space video conferencing
With the Orion spacecraft soaring through its mission with flying colors so far, the capsule will soon enter its Distant Retrograde Orbit of the Moon with significant tests of various capsule and service module systems progressing. Inside Orion, in addition to the myriad of experiments and technology demonstrations, teams from Lockheed Martin, Amazon, and Cisco…
-
Amazon switches Project Kuiper prototype satellites to ULA’s first Vulcan launch
An artist’s conception shows a ULA Vulcan Centaur rocket launching Amazon’s satellites. (Amazon Illustration) The first two prototype satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet network are now due to launch on the first-ever flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket early next year, rather than on ABL Space Systems’ rocket. Today’s announcement comes…
-
NASA awards millions to SpaceX and Amazon’s Project Kuiper for satellite communications
An artist’s conception shows a NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite in orbit. (NASA Illustration) Six satellite ventures — including SpaceX’s Starlink network and Amazon’s Project Kuiper — are due to receive a total of $278.5 million in NASA funding to demonstrate next-generation space communication services in Earth orbit. The Communications Services Project is intended…
-
Arianespace, ULA, Blue Origin discuss executing ambitious Kuiper constellation missions for Amazon
Amazon’s announcement of three launch contracts totaling 83 flights split across Ariane 6, Vulcan, and New Glenn represents the largest commercial launch block buy in history and will unite Arianespace, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin in a multi-year effort to deploy the Kuiper internet constellation. The contracts represent unique challenges to some providers and…
-
Amazon reserves up to 83 rocket launches for Project Kuiper broadband satellite constellation
Amazon plans to have satellites sent into orbit by (from left) United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rockets, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rockets and Arianespace’s Ariane 6 rockets. (Amazon Illustration) Amazon has secured as many as 83 launches on three types of heavy-lift rockets to put more than 1,500 satellites into low Earth orbit for its…
-
Jeff Bezos’ worlds collide: Amazon and AWS join Blue Origin on Orbital Reef space station team
An artist’s conception shows the Orbital Reef space station. (Orbital Reef via Amazon) Amazon and its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, say they’re joining forces with another company founded by Jeff Bezos to support the development of a commercial space station known as Orbital Reef. Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is one of the…
-
SpaceX’s falling Starlink satellites highlight concerns about the future of orbital traffic
A rocket’s-eye view shows a stack of SpaceX Starlink satellites just before orbital deployment. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX says that most of the satellites it launched last week for its Starlink broadband internet constellation are doomed to fall from orbit due to a solar storm. Based on the company’s analysis, as many as 40 of the…
-
Astronomers set up a new center to address issues raised by SpaceX and Amazon satellite networks
This time-lapse image of Venus and the Pleiades shows the tracks of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. (Torsten Hansen / IAU OAE / Creative Commons Attribution) The International Astronomical Union is heading up the creation of a new center to deal with the complications created by broadband satellite constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. The…
-
Amazon teams up with Lockheed Martin and Cisco to put Alexa voice assistant on NASA’s moon ship
The Callisto console will be tested in NASA’s Orion capsule. (Amazon / Lockheed Martin / Cisco Illustration) Alexa, when are we arriving at the moon? Putting Amazon’s AI-enabled voice assistant on a moon-bound spaceship may sound like science fiction (hello, HAL!). But it’s due to become science fact later this year when a radiation-hardened console…