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Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's SpaceX will help Amazon launch competitor Kuiper satellites: Here's why
Amazon's internet-beaming Kuiper satellites could one day be a formative challenge to the Starlink constellation SpaceX has spent years amassing. So, why is SpaceX, the commercial spaceflight company tech mogul Elon Musk founded in 2002, helping Amazon get the satellites into orbit? The next batch of Kuiper satellites are set to hitch a ride into outer space atop SpaceX's famous two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. Amid a brewing billionaire satellite battle between Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the collaboration may seem unexpected. But there is a perfectly logical explanation for the partnership: Amazon is paying good money to SpaceX for the lift. SpaceX's services come after the United Launch Alliance's mighty Atlas V rocket delivered the first two rounds of Project Kuiper satellites into orbit following liftoff from Florida. Here's what to know about the third-ever Kuiper satellite delivery mission – the first using a SpaceX vehicle. What is Project Kuiper? What to know about Amazon satellites launching from Florida When is the next Amazon satellite rocket launch? Amazon is planning to deploy another 24 Kuiper satellites into orbit as early as Wednesday, July 16, from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission is named KF-01 because it is the first Kuiper launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 – one of the world's most active rockets. As of Tuesday, July 15, a 27-minute launch window was scheduled to open at 2:18 a.m. ET Wednesday, July 16. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available at 1:57 a.m. ET Thursday, July 17, according to SpaceX. Once SpaceX's Falcon 9 deploys the satellites at 289 miles above Earth, Amazon's Project Kuiper team will take control from an operations center in Redmond, Washington, and raise them to an altitude of about 391 miles, according to Amazon. A successful delivery would bring the number of Kuiper satellites deployed to low-Earth orbit to 78. Why is SpaceX launching Amazon satellites into orbit? SpaceX is one of multiple companies Amazon has contracted to serve as a launch service provider on its Kuiper deployments. For instance, the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, delivered the first 54 Kuiper satellites into low-Earth orbit across two launches on its Atlas V rocket. A total of 80 Kuiper launches are anticipated in the years ahead, the majority of which will use the ULA's Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur rockets. Eventually, Amazon will make use of the massive New Glenn rocket for Kuiper deliveries. The 320-foot spacecraft is being developed and operated by Blue Origin, the spaceflight company that Bezos also owns. Amazon is also planning to contract with European launch services provider Arianespace. What is Project Kuiper? Amazon's Project Kuiper intends to one day provide high-speed internet to customers around the world. To achieve that goal, the company has begun building a constellation of satellites linked to a global network of antennas, fiber and internet connection points on the ground. Amazon has touted the service as one that will benefit "unserved and underserved communities" in rural areas where internet access may be elusive. Project Kuiper is a subsidiary of Amazon, the online commerce behemoth that billionaire Bezos founded in 1994. An estimated $10 billion Amazon initiative, Project Kuiper includes a $140 million, 100,000-square-foot processing plant at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida that will prep Project Kuiper's satellites for launch from Cape Canaveral. Amazon estimates that Project Kuiper could begin delivering service to customers by late 2025, though it will take years for all 3,232 first-generation satellites to be deployed and operational in low-Earth orbit. Billionaire vs. billionare: Jeff Bezos competes with Elon Musk's Starlink The venture is meant to challenge Starlink, an internet satellite constellation service that billionaire Elon Musk has been building for about six years. SpaceX, which Musk founded in 2002, has launched more than 7,000 operational Starlink satellites into orbit since 2019 from both Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California. In 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, gave SpaceX the greenlight to increase its Falcon 9 rocket launches from 36 per year to 50. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX to help Amazon launch Kuiper satellites, competitor to Starlink
Forbes
17-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
West Coast Opportunities Await Space Industry Rocket Booster Builders
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base. America is struggling to keep up with a booming space industry. A particular space challenge is looming in the Pacific, where investments to bolster U.S. space launch infrastructure lag behind Florida's highly-integrated East Coast launch complexes. This East Coast overweighting is a mistake. Too much big-booster production and other key space manufacturing infrastructure is consolidating eastward. But America's Western launch sites are growing in importance, and the lack of space industry investment may strangle opportunities for future growth. The problem is an economic one. The space industry loves the short-term economic stimulus provided by the Southeastern states, but the operational consequences from the over-consolidation of this industry in the Southeast is, for certain space products, quite dire. Take boosters. The wide, tall and heavy rocket boosters of tomorrow are outgrowing America's old-school roads and rail systems. They don't travel well, and that forces America's next-generation orbital rockets into a crippling dependence upon America's fragile, underdeveloped and easily-disrupted maritime transportation network. This, coupled with America's unfortunate defenestration of the West Coast's limited supply of industrial waterfront, means that America's space launch industry is on the verge of trapping itself on the wrong side of the increasingly unreliable Panama Canal. For the U.S. space economy, overbuilding East Coast space launch support infrastructure provides short term gains in exchange for long-term risks. Cape Canaveral is a wonderful facility. But the Pacific offers America and the Space Industry massive and overlooked opportunities. Outside of SpaceX, America's big-booster community has been slow to invest in the West Coast. To grow—and to challenge SpaceX's virtual lock on the West Coast's big-rocket opportunities, California's Vandenberg Space Force Base, Alaska's Pacific Spaceport Complex and other remote-but-ideally-placed launch sites in America's Pacific territories need more West Coast-based booster production and associated support infrastructure. A 212-foot-tall SLS core stage for the Artemis II moon rocket squeezes out of a barge West Coast is the Space Industry's Future: For space flight, western momentum is undeniable. At California's Vandenberg Space Force Base, the Falcon 9-driven launch tempo has increased by a torrid 30% a year. After hosting just four launches in 2012, Vandenberg is challenging Cape Canaveral's blistering launch tempo. Between May 31 and June 28, Vandenberg hosted seven rocket launches to Cape Canaveral's 10. It would only take a strong hurricane for Vandenberg to sneak ahead. Farther north, the remote Pacific Spaceport Complex—becalmed by launch and testing failures—still predicts launch tempo at the Kodiak, Alaska-based facility will, by 2030, increase almost ten-fold. Farther west, additional development beckons the right innovators. Long-abandoned U.S. rocket-launch facilities on Johnston Island, leased facilities on Kwajalein, and other remote places in the deep Pacific offer American space launch programs invaluable launching points near the equator. With open sea to the east, America's island holdings may offer new frontiers for the big and heavy rockets—and the big, heavy payloads—of the future. Right now, the only big-rocket company poised to exploit America's Pacific space launch facilities is SpaceX. Elon Musk—a newly-minted presidential adversary—moved the SpaceX headquarters out of California in a highly-publicized political huff. Despite the well-orchestrated political showmanship, SpaceX has steadily expanded their West Coast footprint, growing a Long Beach port facility—just 30 minutes from a Falcon 9 first stage fabrication plant—so SpaceX employees can recover and refurbish Falcon 9 booster cores faster and, potentially, assemble and ship larger rockets for use elsewhere. Rivals may be hesitant to challenge SpaceX in the Pacific, but, even SpaceX's ideally-built-out 14-acre waterfront facility is no sure thing. Musk's new 'spaceport' is a former Navy base. In essence, SpaceX has effectively appropriated the Long Beach Naval Complex—and all the infrastructure investment the U.S. government made in the facility—for a bargain-basement cost. An irked White House could easily use the burgeoning national security threat in the Pacific as an excuse to recover the entire complex, dashing SpaceX's virtual monopoly on America's Pacific launch infrastructure—a step that would launch a healthy competition as booster manufacturers jostled for a West Coast toehold. Even without White House involvement, additional big booster-building outposts outside of the already-crowded Los Angeles/Long Beach waterfront makes sense. Private industry is paying a lot for launches, offering an opportunity to quickly pay off the capital costs. Space, however, is limited. Only a handful of California harbors can offer the Space industry the right combination of waterfront access and skilled labor within a few hundred miles of Vandenberg's launch pads. Wider geographical distribution of America's booster production and refurbishment sites is a good thing for America's space industry. It is the only way to accelerate an already blistering Pacific launch tempo at Vandenberg, and America's booster rockets, orbital payloads and geospatial stakes are just getting bigger.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SpaceX rocket to launch Amazon broadband satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
In a partnership between rivals, Elon Musk's SpaceX is slated to launch a payload of Jeff Bezos' Amazon broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit during a late-night liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will take flight during a 1½-hour launch window extending from 2:10 a.m. to 3:38 a.m. Wednesday, July 16, a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency navigational advisory indicates. The Falcon 9 will deploy a batch of Project Kuiper satellites for Amazon's early stage satellite internet constellation, the Space Coast Office of Tourism reported. What's more, this mission represents the first of a three-launch contract. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral Live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team launch coverage updates will kick off about 90 minutes before the early morning launch window opens. When SpaceX's live webcast begins about five minutes before liftoff, look for it posted below next to our countdown clock. In total, Amazon has more than 80 future launches lined up with SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and Arianespace to create its $10 billion worldwide high-speed internet network, which should someday surpass 3,200 satellites. Amazon officials hope Project Kuiper will eventually compete with SpaceX's well-established Starlink constellation, which has nearly 8,000 satellites in orbit — and more than six million customers. But thus far, Amazon has only launched a combined 54 Project Kuiper satellites during two ULA missions — one on April 28, the second on June 23 — using Atlas V rockets from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Wednesday's SpaceX represents Project Kuiper's third launch of production satellites. On Sunday, July 13, SpaceX marked its 500 Falcon 9 mission by launching the Commercial GTO-1 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The liftoff sent Israel's first national communications satellite, Dror 1, up into orbit. "Built by Israel Aerospace Industries, this $200M 'smartphone in space' will power Israel's strategic and civilian communications for 15 years. A bold leap for Israeli innovation!" Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a tweet. For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Internet rivals team up: SpaceX to launch Amazon satellites into orbit
Hindustan Times
02-07-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Amazon's Project Kuiper and SpaceX are competing in a space race
Can you imagine life without internet? Honestly, I wouldn't be able to get through the day without connecting to the internet. It is estimated that about 2.5 billion people around the world do not have access. All said and done, the internet is a great equalizer and has the capacity like no other technology before it to bring opportunities, equality and economic upliftment. It is even considered a basic right in some countries. Even with this, there are limitations that the traditional fiber optic broadband connections have been unable to solve for the 2.5 billion people who live in hard-to-reach places over the years. Think of remote deserts like the sub-Saharan Africa, dense jungles like on the banks of the amazon, isolated islands and conflict zones. In recent years, a new technology is solving this problem by providing the internet not through cables and wires but through electronic waves from satellites in space. It is not new that we look for solutions from space when we cannot find one on earth. Geostationary satellites have been providing internet connections for decades. It is the scale and speed of connectivity using what is called Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites that is the game-changer. In this new kind of space race, the number of satellites in space is increasing with every launch. (Starlink) Project Kuiper is Amazon's ambitious initiative to deliver fast, reliable broadband to communities around the world—especially in regions that lack access to traditional internet services. It is part of the device and services division responsible for Kindle, Echo, Fire TV, eero, Ring, and more. Project Kuiper began as an internal code name at Amazon and draws its name from the Kuiper Belt—a region of the solar system located beyond the eight major planets. The belt is named after Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper, widely regarded as a pioneer of modern planetary science. Recently, an Atlas V rocket provided the ride to orbit for Amazon's first 27 operational Kuiper satellites. Amazon aims to launch 3232 Kuiper satellites on more than 80 rockets, primarily United Launch Alliance's Atlas V and Vulcan over the next few years. Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite-based internet provider currently has around 7000 active satellites while this is Kuiper's first batch. There is also OneWeb which has about 600 active satellites. There are a few other Chinese LEO satellite-based internet providers as well which are serious contenders. The Starlink and Kuiper constellations both use laser inter-satellite links to relay Internet signals from node-to-node across their networks. Starlink broadcasts consumer broadband in Ku-band frequencies, while Kuiper will use Ka-band. The ka band provides greater bandwidth, smaller antennas, higher data transfer rates but is more susceptible to weather than the Ku-band. That there is competition is a very good indicator of the technology's potential. And more competition should ideally lead to better services being provided to the customer. Amazon hasn't yet announced the pricing on internet plans through Project Kuiper but says balancing affordability and performance will be one of their main targets. Its ultra-compact model provides speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps), the standard model delivers up to 400 Mbps, and the largest model, which is intended for enterprise, government, and telecommunications applications, delivers up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). Amazon expects to make consumer terminals the size of its kindle device for under $400 each. Amazon began research and development on Project Kuiper in 2018. In July 2020, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted Amazon a license to deploy and operate Project Kuiper satellites. Amazon's FCC license requires that it deploys and operates at least half of its satellite constellation by July 2026. In India, Amazon's Project Kuiper is awaiting its license from the Department of Telecom (DoT) and regulatory clearance from Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (In-SPACe). Notably, Starlink too is yet to receive its licenses in India. For Amazon, Project Kuiper is a long-term, high-stakes bet on India's satellite broadband future. While competitors like Starlink and OneWeb have an early lead, Amazon's deep pockets and strategic execution could enable Kuiper to enter the Indian market sooner than expected—even ahead of Starlink. Risk of Space junk In this new kind of space race, the number of satellites in space is increasing with every launch. The number of active satellites in the sky would increase rapidly. The amount of stuff zipping around in LEO could ultimately produce a new space problem to deal with – collisions, satellites and space debris. Collisions of two satellites will cause debris orbiting the earth for years. The satellite streaks also alter the night sky to a great extent and cause hindrance to astronomical observations. Ultimate brightness of the satellites is also what worries astronomers. As is mostly the case with fast moving technologies so it is with satellite-based internet technology, and policy here does trail the actual development. Authoured by: Varun Krishnan
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's Curiosity rover takes a closer look at 'spiderwebs' on Mars
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. For over a decade, NASA's Curiosity rover has been capturing images of Mars as scientists continue to study the planet's structures and surface. Curiosity's goal as it travels across Mars is to look for unique signs of life, including signs of possible ancient life on the planet. Curiosity captured this 360-degree image after traveling to an area full of low ridges called boxwork patterns. These patterns look like spiderwebs, as NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter saw in 2006. Since its arrival on Mars from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station via an Atlas V rocket in 2012, Curiosity has been exploring the surface of the Red Planet, including these low ridges. In the middle of the photo, Curiosity's tracks can be seen as its wheels its way across the dust. Curiosity took this photo at the base of Mount Sharp, a 3 mile (5 km) tall mountain within Mars' Gale Crater. In the far distance of the image to the right is the "Texoli" butte, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This panorama image was created by combining 291 images from Curiosity's Mast Camera, or Mastcam, taken over three days in mid-May 2025, according to JPL. The boxwork pattern Curiosity captured is of particular interest to astronomers because its ridges were created by ancient groundwater flowing across Mars surface. The minerals in this groundwater helped harden the surface, and after thousands of years of being sandblasted by atmospheric winds, low ridges appeared at the foot of Mount Sharp. While this ancient groundwater eventually disappeared from the planet entirely, astronomers believe it might have had nutrients to sustain ancient microbes. Using rovers like Curiosity, astronomers can get samples to determine whether there was life on Mars at some point in the planet's past. You can read more about ancient Martian water and NASA's rovers as astronomers continue to study the red planet.
