Amazon is going into competition with SpaceX, with its Project Kuiper broadband satellite-based internet service intended to rival Starlink. The first launch of Project Kuiper satellites is scheduled for Monday April 28, and if you’d like to watch along at home then the event will be livestreamed.
The launch will use a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, and will take place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission, named “KA-01”, will carry 27 satellites into an orbit 280 miles above the Earth’s surface.
You can watch using the video embedded above, or by heading to the United Launch Alliance’s YouTube page for the launch. Coverage begins at 6:35 p.m. ET, with the launch scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.
This is just the first of many planned Kuiper launches, as Amazon has said it intends to create a network of 3,200 satellites in low-Earth orbit. There are 80 planned launches to deploy the network, with an aggressive launch schedule that will mostly use ULA rockets. However, in order to fulfill the high demand for launches, Amazon will also use rockets from Arianespace, Blue Origin, and SpaceX.
“We’ve designed some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and every launch is an opportunity to add more capacity and coverage to our network,” said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of Project Kuiper. “We’ve done extensive testing on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things you can only learn in flight.”
The launch will involve a rocket lifting off from the pad in Cape Canaveral, then traveling to space and deploying the satellites. Once released from the rocket, the satellites need to move into their final orbit, which they do in an mostly autonomous process by firing their electric propulsion systems. Each satellite moves independently and also needs to achieve communications with the ground team.
The satellites will travel around the Earth at a speed of more than 17,000 miles per hour, making a complete orbit around every 90 minutes.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.