TAMPA, Fla. — United Launch Alliance is set to loft the first 27 satellites of the more than 3,200 planned for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband constellation April 9, roughly a year behind schedule as the company races to meet deployment deadlines.
Amazon said April 2 it is preparing to launch its first batch of satellites to low Earth orbit on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, as part of a mission dubbed KA-01 (Kuiper Atlas 1).
The satellites feature significant upgrades over two prototypes ULA launched on an Atlas V in 2023, according to Amazon, including improved phased array antennas, processors, solar arrays, propulsion and optical inter-satellite links.
Successful in-orbit prototype tests had given Amazon confidence it could start deploying operational satellites, built at a facility in Kirkland, Washington, in the first half of 2024, enabling beta trials with potential customers such as Verizon and Vodafone later that year.
The company has not commented on what caused a delay that pushed potential beta services into 2025.
Amazon must also deploy half the constellation by July 2026 under deployment rules tied to its Federal Communications Commission license, and the rest by July 2029.
“We’ve done extensive testing on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things you can only learn in flight, and this will be the first time we’ve flown our final satellite design and the first time we’ve deployed so many satellites at once,” Project Kuiper vice president Rajeev Badyal said in a blog post.
“No matter how the mission unfolds, this is just the start of our journey, and we have all the pieces in place to learn and adapt as we prepare to launch again and again over the coming years.”
Milestone launch
Amazon said KA-01 would be the heaviest payload ever flown on an Atlas V, which will use its most powerful configuration — five solid rocket boosters plus the main booster — to deploy the satellites 450 kilometers above Earth.
ULA is under contract to fly seven more Atlas Vs for Project Kuiper, and 38 launches using its larger Vulcan Centaur rocket.
Tory Bruno, ULA’s CEO, recently projected a dozen launches this year for Amazon and other customers, split between Atlas V and Vulcan, the company’s next-generation rocket that suffered an anomaly on its second flight in October.
Amazon’s multi-billion-dollar launch arrangement for Project Kuiper also includes three SpaceX Falcon 9 missions, 18 Ariane 6 launches from Arianespace and up to 27 New Glenn rockets from Blue Origin.
However, Arianespace only projects four more flights this year for Ariane 6, its next-generation rocket that performed its first commercial flight in March.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin expects the next flight for New Glenn as soon as late spring, following the completion of an investigation into the failed booster landing on its first flight earlier this year.
“Our next launch will be on another Atlas V, and we’re already shipping and processing satellites for that KA-02 mission,” an Amazon spokesperson said via email.
“We’ll share more details closer to launch. Overall, we plan to continue to pick up our pace of operations from here, and we’re on track to begin delivering service to customers later this year.”
Japan’s flagship satellite operator Sky Perfect JSAT and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, which owns telcos in the country, have also partnered to sell services from Project Kuiper to local businesses and government organizations.
