Amazon Launches First Kuiper Satellites to Compete with Starlink

The Launch

Amazon launched the first 27 satellites for its Project Kuiper broadband network on Monday from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The satellites were carried into orbit by an Atlas V rocket operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The launch took place at 7 p.m. EDT after a previous attempt was postponed due to bad weather.

What is Project Kuiper?

Project Kuiper is Amazon’s $10 billion initiative to build a satellite-based internet service, similar to SpaceX’s Starlink.

The company plans to deploy a total of 3,236 satellites in low-Earth orbit.
Its goal is to provide fast and reliable internet to rural and underserved areas worldwide.
This marks Amazon’s biggest space project to date.

Timeline and Targets

Amazon is under pressure to move quickly due to regulatory deadlines:

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires Amazon to launch half of the Kuiper constellation—1,618 satellites—by mid-2026.
Due to delays, Amazon is expected to request more time to meet this target.

The company had originally hoped to begin launches in early 2024, but the project has faced more than a year of delays.

What's Next?

Following this launch:

Amazon is expected to confirm communication with the satellites within days.
If successful, the company plans to begin customer service rollout by the end of 2025.
Up to five more Kuiper missions may be launched this year, according to ULA.

The Competition: Starlink

Project Kuiper enters a market already led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its Starlink network.

SpaceX has launched over 8,000 Starlink satellites since 2019.
The company now serves more than 5 million users across 125 countries.
Starlink has a faster launch pace, with at least one mission each week using its reusable Falcon 9 rockets.

Unlike Amazon, SpaceX builds and launches its own satellites, giving it more control and speed.

What Amazon Says

Amazon’s Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos remains confident in Kuiper’s potential.

“There’s insatiable demand for internet,” Bezos told Reuters. “There’s room for lots of winners... Kuiper will be successful as well.”

The company also highlighted the potential for both commercial and defense applications of its satellite network.

Devices and Services

Amazon plans to offer low-cost, easy-to-install user terminals for its Kuiper service:

The main terminal is about the size of a vinyl record.
A smaller, Kindle-sized terminal is also in development.
Amazon aims to produce tens of millions of units, each priced under $400.

A Massive Launch Deal

To support Kuiper’s rollout, Amazon signed the largest launch agreement in industry history in 2022:

It booked 83 launches from ULA, France’s Arianespace, and Jeff Bezos' own space company, Blue Origin.

The Bottom Line

Amazon’s entry into satellite internet with Project Kuiper marks a major step in the company’s expansion beyond e-commerce and cloud services. While it trails SpaceX in deployment, Amazon’s resources and infrastructure position it as a serious challenger in the growing race to connect the world from space.