Amazon Launches First Kuiper Internet Satellites (cnbc.com) 34
Amazon successfully launched the first 27 satellites for its Project Kuiper internet constellation, kicking off a major effort to compete with Starlink by deploying over 1,600 satellites by mid-2026. It company is investing $10 billion in Kuiper and plans to begin commercial service later this year. CNBC reports: "We had a nice smooth countdown, beautiful weather, beautiful liftoff, and Atlas V is on its way to orbit to take those 27 Kuiper satellites, put them on their way and really start this new era in internet connectivity," Caleb Weiss, a systems engineer at ULA, said on the livestream following the launch.
The satellites are expected to separate from the rocket roughly 280 miles above Earth's surface, at which point Amazon will look to confirm the satellites can independently maneuver and communicate with its employees on the ground. [...] In his shareholder letter earlier this month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Kuiper will require upfront investment at first, but eventually the company expects it to be "a meaningful operating income and ROIC business for us." ROIC stands for return on invested capital. Investors will be listening for any commentary around further capex spend on Kuiper when Amazon reports first-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. A livestream can be found here.
The satellites are expected to separate from the rocket roughly 280 miles above Earth's surface, at which point Amazon will look to confirm the satellites can independently maneuver and communicate with its employees on the ground. [...] In his shareholder letter earlier this month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Kuiper will require upfront investment at first, but eventually the company expects it to be "a meaningful operating income and ROIC business for us." ROIC stands for return on invested capital. Investors will be listening for any commentary around further capex spend on Kuiper when Amazon reports first-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. A livestream can be found here.
No, Amazon didn't launch these satellites (Score:1)
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Oh, wait...
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If they managed 27 with a single launch, I should think they should be able to do the job with 60 launches.
That's still a rather ambitious 4 or 5 launches or so a month for the next 14 months though if it's to be completed by mid 2026.
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And where are they going to get that many rockets from? ULA retired the Atlas V in 2021, and the remaining manufacturing run is spoken for.
That goal is completely unattainable without paying their primary competitor (SpaceX) to launch their stuff for them.
A new era in internet connectivity (Score:2)
... where Amazon does the same thing others have already done!
Re:A new era in internet connectivity (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A new era in internet connectivity (Score:4, Interesting)
While the joke about lack of innovation is good, it's an objectively good thing that people copy each other and thus provides market competition. I don't want to live in a world where I only have one ISP available, especially when run by a Free-speech-for-me-but-not-for-thee Nazi saluting rich cunt.
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You were doing fine till you exposed your not so slightly bias opinions with the facts of the first part of your post. Competition is great. What we are learning is, space is hard.
Of course no one want to give any real recognition to the company who actually created a new service offering. Personally, I'm happy a "rich" person created this offering and is "enriching" the world because of it. Unfortunately, people can't uncouple their political views from a great technology.
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No I'm still doing fine. The fact an opinion have nothing to do with each other. One is a general fact you can take, the other is a personal opinion and additional reason why I am in support of this.
Personally, I'm happy a "rich" person created
Yes... "rich" was the problem I have here. That's why I'm in favour of Bezos and not of Musk. Just the "rich" part.
Unfortunately, people can't uncouple their political views from a great technology.
We don't need to. I added a personal opinion to my post. I have zero intention of uncoupling the two when discussing whether it is good to have market competition or not. Also being a cunt is not a
Re: A new era in internet connectivity (Score:2)
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Heâ(TM)s pulled out of countries like Brazil
WOW. Did you really just cite an example of his free speech that was *checks notes* rolled back within 2 weeks after capitulating to all the government's requirements? I can't wait to see what you say next...
and the only people being banned from X quiet literally are those calling for murders or doxxing people in the hope that someone will murder for them.
Yeah. Oh and someone publishing openly available information like flight tracker data. Oh and anyone using the word cisgender. You know, things just as bad as "murder and doxxing".
Please remove your tongue from Elon's arsehole.
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Oh and leaving aside the issue of bans, how does Mr Free-speech's calls to boycot Wikipedia due to what's written there fit into your Muskworship? Or the suspensions of journalists having pro Gaza views? Or the censoring of accounts of right wingers who disagree on his immigration views?
Look I hate Laurer Loomer, she's almost as big of a shitstain as Musk, but you gotta admit it's a bit sick of you to pretend Mr Free-speech is anything other than a hypocrite when he retaliates against her by removing her ve
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and oddly the delivery is more expensive, you would have thought they would be the ones to go for the prime subscription and get a discount specially with 27 items in the cart.
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... where Amazon does the same thing others have already done!
You think that Spacex invented rockets, and was the first into space?
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No. That's why I said "others" instead of "another incarnation of Musk's ego"
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But but... isn't competition supposed to be good ?!
Conservatives are so confusing...
They want a free market, but are surprised when all their jobs are being outsourced overseas;
They say competition is good, but complain about every business trying to compete against Musk;
They claim to want a small governement, but cheer when orange-man-in-chief distributes executive orders left and right;
They scream bloody murder whenever they hear the word "taxes" but don't seem to have any problem with the word "tariffs";
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What does any of that have to do with me making fun of the PR-tastic "new era in internet connectivity" comment from Amazon?
Only thing they have actually launched into space (Score:2)
Re: Only thing they have actually launched into sp (Score:2)
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Was T and A.
I dunno, that all woman launch was sorta T&A.
Go reee! (Score:1)
So while the idea of a gazillion satellites that need constant replacement in LEO is pretty stupid IMO, Mr Bezos is allowed to launch his own constellation.
I mean - isn't competition supposed to be good?
And some in here seem to be thinking this isn't cool because Bezos isn't the first to do such a thing. Well neither is DogeDaddy. Satellite phones existed before he started his little project. So did rockets.
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Tell us you don't know what you're talking about without telling us. These satellites aren't iridium's constellation where each satellite cost double digit millions. They are all low cost compared to the cost of a launch vehicle (estimated single digit million to 500k). For the cost of two spaceX launch vehicles you can get 60 new satellites into orbit. Or replace one iridium satellite.
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You couldn't just reply to me. You had to add more ranting in another post, I see.
As I replied before, I said "others", not Musk but reading comprehension isn't your strong point.
Limited Lifespan and Space Junk (Score:3)
So say these satellites last 20 years. So in 20 years they'll have to stick another 2000 of them up there. And again 20 years after that. And then each competitor will have to do the same. In 40 years you'll have 10,000s of them. What could possibly go wrong?
Re:Limited Lifespan and Space Junk (Score:5, Informative)
So say these satellites last 20 years. So in 20 years they'll have to stick another 2000 of them up there. And again 20 years after that. And then each competitor will have to do the same. In 40 years you'll have 10,000s of them. What could possibly go wrong?
These are low-earth orbit satellite constellations. They deorbit and burn up when they reach EOL
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And yes, that's the business model.
Why do you think SpaceX does so many StarLink launches?
Turns out that with cheap enough launch capacity, maintaining a constellation of completely disposable LEO sats with no station keeping capacity is completely viable.
well I'm bummed (Score:2)
It would be a much more interesting story if these sats were being set up IN the Kuiper Belt
Competition is Good, even when late (Score:2)
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Kuiper could be cheaper
That's... not very likely--at least not if they're planning on it actually paying for itself. SpaceX is launching their constellation at whatever their internal launch cost is. Amazon just paid rack rate for an Atlas V (and, worse, there aren't any more Atlas Vs to launch on!)