Amazon To Launch First of Its Kuiper Internet Satellites on ULA Rocket (washingtonpost.com) 22
The first two satellites of Amazon's space-based internet constellation will be launched early next year on the maiden flight of a new rocket being developed by one of the U.S. Space Force's biggest contractors. In an announcement Wednesday, Amazon said it would hitch a ride on the new Vulcan rocket being developed by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. From a report: The prototype satellites, part of Amazon's Kuiper system that would beam the internet to stations on the ground, were initially scheduled to launch by the end of this year by rocket start-up ABL Space Systems. But delays and the opportunity to launch with ULA, which was already contracted for 47 launches of satellites for Amazon, compelled the company to switch rockets, Rajeev Baydal, the vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, said in an interview. Amazon has permission from the Federal Communications Commission to put up 3,236 satellites, helping connect people without easy access to broadband, as it seeks to compete with SpaceX's Starlink system. The company has pledged to invest more than $10 billion into a system it says will serve not only individual households, but also schools, hospitals and businesses that don't have access to reliable broadband. Baydal said that Amazon now has 1,000 people working on the project as it seeks to grab a part of the lucrative internet market taking hold in space.
Curious, am I... (Score:2)
...to know why they chose the maiden flight of a ULA rocket rather than a Falcon9 (or Falcon Heavy, if their payload is too big for a Falcon9).
Unless ULA is pretty much giving away a free flight, it's going to be a lot more expensive to boost on a ULA vehicle than a Falcon....
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Seems like they would use a Blue Origin rocket.
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Well, isn't that the rocket developed in partnership with Blue Origin to replace the Russian RD-180 [wikipedia.org] or am I mistaken?
Re:Curious, am I... (Score:4, Interesting)
Very simple, Bezos and Musk have a bit of a rivalry going.
Bezos would of course prefer to launch on his own rockets, but he hasn't built one that can reach orbit yet.
So he'd launch on anything other than SpaceX because he'd prefer to burn money rather than give it to Musk.
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It's all because of Bezos. ULA is a customer of Blue Origin, which will provide the BE-4 engines for the Vulcan rocket.
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Simple answer is that SpaceX doesn't have an opening any time soon. They are fully booked.
Of course the Amazon service competes with the SpaceX owned Starlink service too. So you could argue that SpaceX wouldn't ever do business with them. But I don't think that is the case. SpaceX has launched many things belonging to competitors. As the summary points out, this was a last minute change. SpaceX has several contracts with several committed launches. They can't just add another launch that would be scheduled
Re: Curious, am I... (Score:1)
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As I understand SpaceX gives priority to paying customers over Starlink sats.
So every single one of the Starlink launches could have gone to Bezos, if he was willing to pay SpaceX to launch them. Imagine paying SpaceX so that SpaceX uses all spare capacity to launch Kuiper sats and delays Starlink coverage plans.
So I doubt what you said about SpaceX not having an available launch vehicle/launch slot/"opening".
Currently Spacex is the only provider who has spare launch capacity(first stage reuse helps with th
That's nothing... (Score:2)
Beam the internet to station on the ground (Score:2)
Re: LOL (Score:1)
Another five years if they gave ULA their usual NASA cost-plus contract terms for this.
Enough space available? (Score:2)
Is there really enough space around the planet for all these companies and eventually other countries, to launch constellations of satellites to offer competing service?
It's going to be really disruptive when someone eventually explodes an ordinance or has a major spacecraft accident and particles start screwing with the plethora of satellites up there.
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Even if you launched every Starlink and Kuiper satellite both companies want to launch- you're only talking about maybe 50,000 satellites. Now imagine taking 50,000 objects and spreading them over the surface of the Earth- there would be miles and miles between each object. Then you factor in the different altitudes for the different shells and it becomes clear that those satellites have plenty of space.
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Now imagine each of those 50000 objects, spread over the surface of the earth, is moving at 10km/s, and then imagine that you want to go outside for a walk.
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Now imagine each of those 50000 objects, spread over the surface of the earth, is moving at 10km/s, and then imagine that you want to go outside for a walk.
Basically this [youtube.com]?
More like the scene from Wall-e (Score:2)
With the rocket plowing through all the space junk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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What a stupid comparison on so many levels.
First off- those objects are all traveling at predictable speeds in predictable orbits. No one is just "going for a walk" in space.
Second- those 50,000 objects are mostly traveling at slightly different altitudes (except ones in the same plane traveling at the same speed in the same orbit and they're not going to hit each other). What do you care if there is an object that might cross your path but 1000 feet over your head?
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Kuiper (Score:1)
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