Amazon Space Internet Program Project Kuiper launches the first two satellites

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizens for the delivery of clues about the past. CTOnews.com, October 7 (Xinhua)-- an ULA Atlas V rocket lifted off from launch site 41 of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:06 EDT on October 6, Amazon said.

It carried two prototypes of Amazon's Project Kuiper (low Earth orbit Satellite Broadband Program) into space and deployed them 311miles above Earth (CTOnews.com Note: 500km). The launch marks the beginning of Amazon's "Protoflight" mission.

At 2:53 EDT that day, Amazon's Mission Operations Center in Redmond, Washington confirmed its first contact with KuiperSat-2 and the first telemetry link established between a satellite and a telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) antenna. First contact is one of the key steps in the Protoflight mission, where Amazon can start downlink data on the health of the satellite and establish more regular communications with the satellite.

It is understood that the prototype satellites KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 are the first batch of more than 3200 satellites that Kuiper plans to build and deploy in the next six years. Although Protoflight is only a milestone in the development and testing phase of the project, it is an important learning opportunity for the team.

Project Kuiper includes three key elements: advanced low-orbit broadband satellites; small and affordable customer terminals; and secure and flexible terrestrial communication networks. The Protoflight task tests all three parts and the teams and systems that manage them.

At the end of the mission, Amazon plans to take the two satellites out of orbit before they finally burn in the Earth's atmosphere-as part of its commitment to space security.

Amazon's first production satellites are expected to be launched in the first half of 2024 and Beta testing with early commercial customers is expected by the end of 2024.