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Project Kuiper satellites are packed inside containers for transport to Florida. (Amazon Photo)
Amazon is providing a sneak peek at the satellites that are being shipped to Florida for the launch of its Project Kuiper broadband network — well, maybe not the satellites, but at least their containers.
“Late last year, we began shipping flight-ready satellites, and even more have been on their way in recent weeks,” the Project Kuiper team said in a posting to LinkedIn.
The first batch of production-level satellites is due for launch sometime in the next few months on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That’ll follow up on the successful testing of two prototype satellites that were launched on an Atlas V in October 2023.
Eventually, 3,232 satellites are slated to go into orbit to provide high-speed internet service. Under the terms of Amazon’s license from the Federal Communications Commission, half of those satellites are to be launched by mid-2026.
Project Kuiper would provide added competition for SpaceX’s Starlink network, which currently dominates the market for satellite broadband connectivity with 5 million subscribers. Amazon is planning to start rolling out Project Kuiper services by the end of this year.
An employee prepares s satellite container for shipping to Florida. (Amazon Photo)
The manufacturing center for Project Kuiper’s satellites is in Kirkland, Wash., but the spacecraft have to be sent to Florida for processing and integration for launch. Amazon has kept imagery of the actual satellites close to the vest, apparently for proprietary reasons, but the pictures released this week show containers being prepared for shipping.
Rajeev Badyal, Amazon’s vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, passed along the pictures in his own LinkedIn post and said he was “excited to share a behind-the-scenes look at our satellites shipping out to Cape Canaveral.”
“From our Ka-band phased array antennas to our active propulsion systems and 100 Gbps laser links, we’re launching some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and we expect the extra invention will pay off for our customers,” Badyal wrote. “Lots of work still ahead, but we’re getting closer every day to the start of a full-scale deployment.”
Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior vice president for devices and services, also chimed in on LinkedIn. “We’re not just building satellites, we’re working to unlock Internet connectivity for tens of millions of people around the world,” he wrote.
