{"id":17343,"date":"2022-10-12T21:53:56","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T13:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/amazon-switches-project-kuiper-prototype-satellites-to-ulas-first-vulcan-launch\/"},"modified":"2022-10-12T21:53:56","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T13:53:56","slug":"amazon-switches-project-kuiper-prototype-satellites-to-ulas-first-vulcan-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/amazon-switches-project-kuiper-prototype-satellites-to-ulas-first-vulcan-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon switches Project Kuiper prototype satellites to ULA\u2019s first Vulcan launch"},"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\/2022\/10\/221022-vulcan2-630x355.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-728821\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/221022-vulcan2-630x355.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/221022-vulcan2-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/221022-vulcan2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/221022-vulcan2.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption>An artist\u2019s conception shows a ULA Vulcan Centaur rocket launching Amazon\u2019s satellites. (Amazon Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The first two prototype satellites for Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper broadband internet network are now due to launch on the first-ever flight of United Launch Alliance\u2019s Vulcan Centaur rocket early next year, rather than on ABL Space Systems\u2019 rocket.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s announcement comes in the wake of schedule slips for ABL as well as for United Launch Alliance \u2014 slips that mean ULA\u2019s Vulcan launch schedule lines up better with Amazon\u2019s satellite deployment schedule.<\/p>\n<p>The prototypes \u2014 known as Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2 \u2014 are designed to test how the different components of a full 3,236-satellite constellation will work together. Results of the test will help Amazon refine its design for the production satellites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur prototype satellites will be ready this year, and we look forward to flying with ULA,\u201d Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, said today in an Amazon update.<\/p>\n<p>The original plan called for the Kuipersats to launch this year on one of the first flights of ABL\u2019s RS1 rocket \u2014 but California-based ABL ran into delays in its test program, resulting in schedule shifts. And this week, ULA said it would delay the debut of its next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket at the request of its primary payload customer, Astrobotic.<\/p>\n<p>ULA said Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic asked for more time to finish work on its Peregrine lunar lander, which was chosen to fly to the moon as the first mission for NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The launch had been set for late 2022, but it\u2019s now planned for the first quarter of 2023. The Kuipersats will be sent into low Earth orbit as secondary payloads.<\/p>\n<p>Vulcan\u2019s liftoff would mark the first use of Blue Origin\u2019s BE-4 rocket engines \u2014 which are produced by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos\u2019 privately held space venture in Kent, Wash., and were just delivered to ULA after years of delay.<\/p>\n<p>Switching from ABL to ULA isn\u2019t all that much of a stretch. Last year, Amazon struck a deal for ULA to launch the first production Kuiper satellites on Atlas 5 rockets, with Vulcan launches to follow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve already secured 38 Kuiper launches on Vulcan, and using the same launch vehicle for our prototype mission gives us a chance to practice payload integration, processing, and mission management procedures ahead of those full-scale commercial launches,\u201d Badyal said.<\/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=\"To Low Earth Orbit and Beyond: Connectivity for All\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4pSn7aoLidU?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 has made reservations for scores of additional launches on Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket and Arianespace\u2019s Ariane 6, adding up to as many as 92 liftoffs in all. The company also plans to retain two launch reservations with ABL, to be flown at a later time. <\/p>\n<p>Project Kuiper hasn\u2019t laid out a detailed schedule for satellite deployment or the start of service \u2014 but under the terms of Amazon\u2019s license from the Federal Communications Commission, half of the 3,236 planned satellites have to be in operation by 2026. <\/p>\n<p>When the license was issued, Amazon said it would spend more than $10 billion on Project Kuiper. More than 1,000 Amazon employees are working on the satellite effort, with most of them based at Project Kuiper\u2019s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Amazon\u2019s career website lists more than 300 open positions for the project.<\/p>\n<p>Project Kuiper is aimed at widening broadband internet access for billions of people around the world who are underserved. But in the market for satellite data services from low Earth orbit, Amazon is far behind SpaceX\u2019s Starlink service, which already has thousands of satellites in orbit and hundreds of thousands of subscribers. An international venture known as OneWeb is also ahead of Amazon, with more than 400 satellites in orbit and plans to ramp up service over the coming year.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon is hoping that synergies with its other business lines \u2014 such as Amazon Web Services \u2014 will give it an advantage, even as a relative latecomer. <span style=\"font-size: revert;\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows a ULA Vulcan Centaur rocket launching Amazon\u2019s satellites. (Amazon Illustration) The first two prototype satellites for Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper broadband internet network are now due to launch on the first-ever flight of United Launch Alliance\u2019s Vulcan Centaur rocket early next year, rather than on ABL Space Systems\u2019 rocket. Today\u2019s announcement comes [&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":[4615,275,252,962,20,4336,442,750,4518],"class_list":["post-17343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-abl-space-systems","tag-amazon","tag-broadband","tag-project-kuiper","tag-satellite","tag-satellite-broadband","tag-satellites","tag-united-launch-alliance","tag-vulcan-rocket"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17343"}],"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=17343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}