{"id":17254,"date":"2023-10-16T17:13:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T09:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/amazons-project-kuiper-prototype-satellites-are-stable-in-orbit-and-collecting-key-data\/"},"modified":"2023-10-16T17:13:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T09:13:33","slug":"amazons-project-kuiper-prototype-satellites-are-stable-in-orbit-and-collecting-key-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/amazons-project-kuiper-prototype-satellites-are-stable-in-orbit-and-collecting-key-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper prototype satellites are \u2018stable in orbit\u2019 and collecting key data"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"355\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/kuiperlaunch-630x355.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-794774\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/kuiperlaunch-630x355.jpeg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/kuiperlaunch.jpeg 660w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">A member of Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper mission management team in Redmond, Wash., helps monitor the satellites\u2019 activity in space. (Amazon Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amazon said two prototype satellites launched on Friday on a test mission of the company\u2019s Project Kuiper&nbsp;broadband internet constellation are stable in orbit and already collecting important data.<\/p>\n<p>In a blog post on Monday, Amazon said that the first critical steps of Kuiper\u2019s Protoflight mission are complete. The satellites rode a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida into space Friday at 11:06 a.m. PT.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of work ahead, but at this point in the mission, I\u2019m thrilled to report that KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 are operating nominally,\u201d Rajeev Badyal, Project Kuiper\u2019s vice president of technology, said in a statement. \u201cThe two satellites are stable in orbit, harvesting energy from the sun, and communicating across all links from Earth to space and space to Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amazon plans to use the prototypes \u2014 which were built at&nbsp;Project Kuiper\u2019s Redmond, Wash.-based headquarters&nbsp;\u2014 and the monthslong testing mission to test the hardware on the spacecraft, as well as ground operations and&nbsp;customer terminals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re already learning a lot from this mission that will inform further improvements to our production systems, and the team should be very proud of this milestone,\u201d Badyal added.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Project Kuiper Protoflight Mission: Launch Day Highlights\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4CScMjPE744?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Amazon said the next phase of the mission will be used to test its data network end to end. That involves routing data from the internet, through the company\u2019s Amazon Web Services-powered ground network, from a ground gateway antenna up to the prototype satellites, and then down to customer terminal antennas at Amazon\u2019s test site, as well as sending data in the other direction.<\/p>\n<p>Satellite production will begin before the end of the year, in parallel with the Protoflight mission, according to Amazon. The first production satellites are planned for launch in the first half of 2024, and the company expects to enter beta testing with early commercial customers in the second half of next year.<\/p>\n<p>The Project Kuiper program was&nbsp;publicly unveiled in 2019, and aims to provide broadband internet access \u2014 and&nbsp;satellite-based access to AWS&nbsp;\u2014 to millions of people who are currently underserved.<\/p>\n<p>The tech giant said it has committed $10 billion to getting Project Kuiper off the ground. More than 1,000 employees are said to be working on the project, and&nbsp;Amazon\u2019s careers website&nbsp;lists an additional 200-plus open positions \u2014 with most of those positions based in Washington state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A member of Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper mission management team in Redmond, Wash., helps monitor the satellites\u2019 activity in space. (Amazon Photo) Amazon said two prototype satellites launched on Friday on a test mission of the company\u2019s Project Kuiper&nbsp;broadband internet constellation are stable in orbit and already collecting important data. In a blog post on Monday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[962,4336,21],"class_list":["post-17254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-project-kuiper","tag-satellite-broadband","tag-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}