Amazon moves its prototype internet satellites to the ULA rocket, which will launch them in 2023.
The first satellites to launch as part of Amazon’s Kuiper Network will be the prototypes.
Washington (Reuters) – Amazon (AMZN.O) will use a new rocket from the Boeing-Lockheed (BA.N) and Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) joint venture United Launch Alliance to launch its first two prototype satellites for an internet-from-space constellation in early 2023.
Launch startup ABL Space Systems was supposed to launch the two Amazon satellites by the end of this year, but there were problems with the rocket. Instead, Amazon put the two satellites on ULA’s new Vulcan rocket as a secondary payload.
The first orbital flight of a new rocket that will compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX launchers is set for the first three months of 2023.
The prototype satellites will be the first to launch as part of Amazon’s Kuiper Network, which is a planned constellation of 3,236 low-Earth-orbiting satellites that will send high-speed internet to remote parts of the world.
The company has promised to put $10 billion into the project. They want to catch up to SpaceX’s fast-growing Starlink network, which already has thousands of customers in dozens of countries using their internet service.
Amazon’s last-minute switch to ULA’s Vulcan rocket will be a good test run with its partner ULA before it buys 38 more Vulcan launches from the launch company in 2021 to help put up most of its operational satellites.
Amazon hasn’t said when it plans to send up its first satellites that can be used. U.S. communications regulators want the company to have half of its network in place by 2026.
The company’s other contract with the startup ABL for at least two launches is still good, but a spokesman said Amazon doesn’t know what satellites it will use those rockets for.
Dan Piemont, the president of ABL, told Reuters in an email that the company made a custom launch adapter and did other custom work for the Kuiper satellites earlier this year.
“This work is still going on for future launches of Kuiper,” he said.
