Rocket issue grounds Amazon Kuiper satellites launch

Just when Amazon was ready to send its newest batch of Kuiper internet satellites into space, a rocket issue brought everything to a halt.

The launch was all set for Monday afternoon, bright and early, from sunny Cape Canaveral. But with only about 30 minutes to go before the rocket was due to blast off, the folks at United Launch Alliance (ULA) hit the brakes. They noticed something unusual: a part of the booster engine, on their Atlas V rocket, was getting a bit too hot.

ULA hasn’t given a new launch date just yet, but they’ve promised to let us know as soon as they figure things out.

This isn’t the first delay of this particular mission. The latest batch of Amazon Kuiper satellites were planned to launch last Friday, but the weather just wasn’t playing along, forcing them to push it to Monday.

Project Kuiper is Amazon’s rival to SpaceX’s Starlink low-Earth orbit satellites. Amazon wants to deliver fast, affordable internet to people all over the globe—especially in areas like remote villages, mountains, or even places hit by disasters to provide emergency relief when other telecom services are down.

Amazon’s goal is pretty ambitious: they want to have 3,236 satellites orbiting Earth by 2029. But even sooner than that, they’re hoping to kick off their high-speed internet service by the end of this year, with around 1,000 satellites already up there.

Getting all these satellites into space isn’t cheap or easy. Amazon has shelled out over $10 billion on launch contracts, securing more than 90 rocket launches with various space companies. That includes ULA, of course, but also names like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, ArianeGroup, and even SpaceX.

As competition in the satellite internet market intensifies, with established players like Starlink already serving over a million customers globally, Amazon Kuiper promises to bring additional options and potentially lower prices for consumers and businesses in areas that have struggled with a lack of robust connectivity.

(Image credit: ULA)

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Tags: amazon, connectivity, kuiper, networks, rural, satellites, space, telecoms