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| Amazon Launches First Project Kuiper Satellites to Orbit | Amazon Launches First Project Kuiper Satellites to Orbit |
| (about 11 hours later) | |
| In a space race between two businesses started by Jeff Bezos, his e-commerce company, Amazon, beat his rocket company, Blue Origin, to orbit. | In a space race between two businesses started by Jeff Bezos, his e-commerce company, Amazon, beat his rocket company, Blue Origin, to orbit. |
| Two Amazon prototype satellites were launched on top of an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday. They are part of Project Kuiper, a communications constellation that is to eventually consist of more than 3,200 satellites. It will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink and other space-based internet services. | Two Amazon prototype satellites were launched on top of an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday. They are part of Project Kuiper, a communications constellation that is to eventually consist of more than 3,200 satellites. It will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink and other space-based internet services. |
| Liftoff of the rocket occurred at 2:06 p.m. Eastern time. The rocket’s upper stage then separated from the booster several minutes into flight, carrying the satellites toward orbit. | Liftoff of the rocket occurred at 2:06 p.m. Eastern time. The rocket’s upper stage then separated from the booster several minutes into flight, carrying the satellites toward orbit. |
| In a news release, United Launch Alliance, the company that provided the Atlas V rocket to space, said the launch was successful, indicating that the rocket delivered the two satellites to the desired 311-mile-high orbit. On Friday evening, Amazon said in a statement that it had made contact with both satellites in orbit less than an hour after the launch. | In a news release, United Launch Alliance, the company that provided the Atlas V rocket to space, said the launch was successful, indicating that the rocket delivered the two satellites to the desired 311-mile-high orbit. On Friday evening, Amazon said in a statement that it had made contact with both satellites in orbit less than an hour after the launch. |
| After deployment of the solar panels and tests of the spacecraft’s systems, the satellites are to beam internet connections from space to the company’s flat, square antennas for consumers on the ground. | |
| “This is Amazon’s first time putting satellites into space, and we’re going to learn an incredible amount regardless of how the mission unfolds,” Rajeev Badyal, a vice president of technology for Project Kuiper at Amazon, said in a statement from the company before the launch. |