Amazon put the first batch of satellites into orbit Monday, the company's first step towards countering Elon Musk's Starlink Satellite Constellation.
Amazon's project Kuiper has sent 27 satellites to the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V Rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The first batch of satellites forms the beginning of a megaconstellation that offers fast, affordable internet services to almost every location on Earth.
Project Kuiper posted to X that the satellite's initial deployment and activation sequences were progressing as planned.
The Kuiper team manages their constellations from the 24/7 Mission Operations Center in Redmond, Washington.
“This is the first step on a much longer journey to begin the rest of our low Earth Orbital Constellations, but it represents incredible invention and hard work,” said CEO and president of Amazon Andy Jassy. In a post of x.
Founded by Jeff Bezos, Amazon is set to bring more than 3,200 satellites into orbit.
The company already plans to launch more than 80.
Musk and his company SpaceX currently dominate the Mega-Constellation Market.
Since 2019, the company has launched more than 8,000 StarLink satellites, with over 7,000 people orbiting more than 300 miles on Earth.
The Project Kuiper satellite travels in orbit at speeds of over 17,000 mph and circles the planets about every 90 minutes.
While the satellite is in orbit, the team sends data from the Internet, via ground infrastructure, to the satellite, and to the customer's terminal antenna, then travels in another direction.
Amazon expects to provide its customers with internet service later this year.
Alexandra Koch of Fox Business Digital contributed to this report.
