Amazon’s first 27 Kuiper broadband sats make it into orbit on an Atlas V
- Reference: 1745904077
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/29/amazon_kuiper_first_launch/
- Source link:
Jeff Bezos’ flying telco used an United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to send 27 of its satellites skywards and at 7:01PM Monday, Eastern Time, the craft left Cape Canaveral Space Force Station without incident.
Just over five minutes later, the rocket made it into orbit and the flight team declared “early milestones” were achieved and all systems were nominal. You can see the launch in this vid:
[1]
[2]Youtube Video
[3]
[4]
There’s no word yet on whether the satellites are working – as is usual – and Amazon has not said when it will start to offer services, or the price it will charge.
Some known facts about Kuiper include:
In public filings, Amazon has budgeted $7.4 billion for satellite launch and related services through 2028;
The company has booked over 80 launches to launch the 3,200-plus satellites that will comprise its first-generation low Earth orbit network;
Amazon claims its terminal design “is smaller and lighter than legacy designs, allowing Amazon to produce a customer terminal that is more affordable and easier to install.”
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has [5]said his sales teams “continue to feel significant demand for the service from enterprise and government entities” and believes “this could be a very large business for us."
Space-centric analyst firm Quilty Space [6]thinks Amazon’s launch deal with Arianespace will cost it a further $2.5-3.0 billion, and that the project will cost [7]between $16.5 and $20 billion.
[8]Earth's atmosphere is shrinking and thinning, which is bad news for Starlink and other LEO Sats
[9]Satellite slinger AST reckons newer birds won't outshine stars in night sky
[10]White House budget proposal could beam NASA science back decades
[11]US Space Force warns Chinese satellites are 'dogfighting' in space
By way of comparison, AWS [12]plans to spend around $100 billion on datacenter and AI infrastructure during 2025.
Kuiper looks like a hobby by comparison.
[13]
While news of a first launch will be welcomed at Amazon, the company is more than 7,200 satellites behind its rival SpaceX’s Starlink service, which is thought to have over four million subscribers and annual revenue ascending past $8 billion.
And let’s not forget that Chinese concerns [14]plan to launch over 30,000 broadband satellites. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aBFL8ABpX0ATvI-CtBmbHwAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.youtube.com/live/_nwyv0fPgmc?si=n9aWzEYa_Y9og9Cs&t=1721
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aBFL8ABpX0ATvI-CtBmbHwAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/02/amazon_q2_2024/
[6] https://www.quiltyspace.com/quilty-quicktakes/kuiper-spending-10b-on-launch-alone
[7] https://www.quiltyspace.com/quilty-quicktakes/assessing-kuipers-satellite-manufacturing-delays
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/11/greenhouse_gases_reduce_satellite_capacity_paper/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/28/ast_satellites/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/14/nasa_science_budget/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/20/us_space_force_warns_chinese/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/07/amazon_q4_fy_2024/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aBFL8ABpX0ATvI-CtBmbHwAAANg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/08/china_qianfan_launch/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Launch cost
Kuiper is a better product, Starlink suffers from very high Jitter when it exchanges birds, every 13 minutes AWS say they solved this problem with next-generation tech. If the AWS ground terminal is better, its going to be win-win. Launch cost are Tax deductible as R&D investment, which Mr Trump has kindly bought back in
Re: Launch cost
I used Starlink for three years without any noticeable jitter of significant magnitude, including in some long-term network monitoring tools. Got a reference for that claim?
We'll see how the services fare. It's a bit of an irrelevance to me now, as I won't do business with either of them, but I'm still interested to see how the services work out.
GJC
Re: Launch cost
Right here on this site, from last year...
SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service "represents an unusually hostile link environment" to the TCP protocol, according to Geoff Huston, chief scientist at the Asia Pacific Network Information Center.
https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/22/starlink_tcp_performance_evaluation/
Re: Launch cost
Oh, yes, I remember being puzzled by that at the time it was published.
All I can say is that three years of real-world usage of the system including a whole bunch of video conferences and voice calls didn't show up any problems at all.
GJC
Re: Launch cost
SpaceX's 2024 revenue was around $8 billion, and profit (EBIDTA) around $3.8 billion. If you assume Kuiper can also earn a few billion profit per year after a few years operation, it doesn't take that many years to recoup the estimated $20 billion launch costs. But as the article states, the costs are relatively small beer for Amazon, and they're probably a lot less bothered about it being profitable (in terms of recovering the initial costs) than they are about becoming a major player in the LEO satellite internet market. I assume like Starlink, the satellites will have a lifespan of just a few years, but as you say, New Glenn will be reusable eventually, so the costs of maintaining the constellation could eventually be comparable to SpaceX.
Satellite numbers
If we get enough satellites into orbit, will it reduce global warming by blocking sunlight?
Hard to see how a kuiper terminal...
Is easier to set up than starlink... Stick dish on ground, connect cable to router and turn on.
TBH, after 2 years of use, not noticed "jitter" on Starlink either, mind you I'm only using it for teams and zoom.
Elon Musk is still a grade A twat though.
Re: Hard to see how a kuiper terminal...
Elon Musk is still a grade A twat though
And that's the business proposition for competing with Starlink, even if you had a slightly inferior product. There are many people who now will refuse to do anything that puts a single penny in Musk's pocket. Not that Bezos is a whole lot better, but if I was forced to choose between the two I'd pick the one who isn't a nazi.
Launch cost
It's difficult to see how Kuiper can compete with Starlink while they are paying for other company's disposable rockets. I assume their business model is based on getting New Glenn running and properly reusable before too much longer, to directly compete with the costs of the Starlink plus either Falcon 9 or Starship combination.
GJC