Amazon Launches First Kuiper Internet Satellites (cnbc.com) 21
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.
A new era in internet connectivity (Score:2)
... where Amazon does the same thing others have already done!
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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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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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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";
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.
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?
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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.