by Jeff Bezos suffered a setback in his ambition to take over Elon Musk Starlink network after Amazon was forced to scrub the first start of his Kuiper internet.
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) had brought 27 of Amazon from Amazon from Cape Canaveral in Florida to orbit, but thick clouds and the nearby rules for rain injuries.
“It is confirmed that we will not continue with the Amazon Project Kuiper 1 start activities today,” said Caleb Weiss, start commentator at ULA during the live stream. A new date has not yet been set.
Project Kuiper is the billion-dollar attempt by Amazon to build a global satellite internet network that could bring the Starlink constellation of SpaceX, which has already been used by more than 6,750 satellites and has started commercial business in more than 100 countries.
Amazon has announced that it would start more than 3,200 Kuiper satellites after it had secured more than 80 starts to provide the initial constellation.
The contracts include Ula, Arianespace, Blue Origin – the space company founded by Bezos – and even SpaceX.
“We have developed some of the most advanced communication satellites that have ever been built, and every start is an opportunity to give our network more capacity and reporting,” said Rajeev Badyal, Vice President of Project Kuiper, before the recent attempt to start.
“We carried out extensive tests on site to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things that you can only learn in flight, and this is the first time that we flew our final satellite design, and the first time that we used so many satellites at the same time.”
Two Kuiper satellites of prototypes were successfully launched in October 2023, with Amazon improving the performance of drive systems, processors and intentel connections.
After use, activate the satellites on on -board systems and use their electrical drive systems to rise to their assigned orbit of 630 kilometers (392 miles).
Amazon employees then test the network connectivity by sending data to the satellites and returning to terminals on site.
