Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

An Atlas 5 rocket carrying Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites lifts off in Florida Terry Renna

Amazon launches first satellites into space

A rocket containing two test satellites blasted off in Florida as part of a mission to bring fast internet connection to all corners of the globe.

AMAZON HAS LAUNCHED its first satellites into space as part of a mission to bring fast internet connection to all corners of the globe.

An Atlas V rocket holding two test satellites blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2.06pm today.

The launch is part of a mission called Project Kuiper to bring fast and affordable broadband services to communities around the world who are “unserved or underserved” by traditional internet providers.

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) confirmed the rocket took off safely, and they have now completed 158 successful launches.

amazon-satellite-launch The Atlas 5 rocket blasts into space Terry Renna Terry Renna

ULA vice president of government and commercial programmes Gary Wentz said: “This initial launch is the first step in support of deployment of Amazon’s initiative to provide fast, affordable broadband service to unserved and underserved communities around the world.

“We have worked diligently in partnership with the Project Kuiper team to launch this important mission that will help connect the world.”

Jeff Bezos’s Amazon said it wants to help “bridge the digital divide” through the long-term initiative.

The project rivals billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Starlink, which uses satellites to beam a broadband signal down to Earth.

Starlink has about 5,000 satellites in space around the globe and the technology is being used as part of a UK Government trial to connect rural homes and isolated areas to better internet service.

Amazon said its prototype satellites, KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, are the first iterations of more than 3,200 satellites it plans to make and deploy over the next six years.

Rajeev Badyal, Project Kuiper’s vice president of technology, said: “We’ve done extensive testing here in our lab and have a high degree of confidence in our satellite design, but there’s no substitute for on-orbit testing.

“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.”

The series of tests will add to years of data collected from lab and field testing, the group said.

At the end of the mission, which will involve extensive tests of the satellites in space and the network on the ground, it plans to “actively de-orbit” both satellites before they ultimately burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

This is part of the group’s commitment to space safety, Amazon said.

Project Kuiper, which began in 2018, is aiming for the broadband service to work for its earliest customers by the end of 2024.

By July 2026, it should have half of its entire satellite network running.

Close
22 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Modern Irish Dad
    Favourite Modern Irish Dad
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:08 PM

    If they can do this, surely they can make it easier to cancel prime tv.

    174
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clank
    Favourite Clank
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:13 PM

    @Modern Irish Dad: surly just cancel your direct debit payment,I had similar problem with sky a few months back,that’s how I sorted it.

    44
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Modern Irish Dad
    Favourite Modern Irish Dad
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:18 PM

    @Clank: Well yes, but as my account is linked to my card not sure how it works. I did cancel it, it’s just not easy. You can’t do it on the phone, well not in the app. With Netflix and Disney it’s just one simple click. With Amazon you gotta do a bit of work to find it. Very clingy as well, they want me back but that relationship is over.

    53
    See 5 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Modern Irish Dad
    Favourite Modern Irish Dad
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:24 PM

    @Clank: Sky is starting to look a bit ropey, the glass tv thing doesn’t seem like it’s caught on at all. Its next on my chopping block after Christmas.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clank
    Favourite Clank
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:32 PM

    @Modern Irish Dad:on the prime tv issue can’t offer any more,we have it because my wife pays extra for faster delivery on orders and u get prime tv also,sky came back to me three weeks later,got my bill down from euro 190 a month to 126 a month.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute
    Favourite
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 9:55 AM

    @Modern Irish Dad: on your online banking there should be a payments section. Click that and all your direct debit should show up. Click on Amazon prime and follow the instructions to cancel it. With AIB you’ll need your bank card and one of their card readers. You’ll put the card into the reader put your pin and then enter the last 8 digits of the receivers Ban and the value of the direct debit. You’ll get a code on the reader..enter that code online to cancel the direct debit.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Modern Irish Dad
    Favourite Modern Irish Dad
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 1:59 PM

    Thank you for sharing that, everyday is a school day

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul A Kane
    Favourite Paul A Kane
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 7:20 PM

    @Modern Irish Dad: do U mean prime video if yes open app and go to setting then manage account and there U can see cancel membership if ya mean something else then I’m sorry for typing bollox lol .

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
    Favourite Ollie Fitzpatrick
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:08 PM

    That’s where my parcel is gone!!!

    58
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Colette Kearns
    Favourite Colette Kearns
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:51 PM

    I wonder what the carbon tax is going to cost? ( which is probably zero)

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Corey Dalton
    Favourite Corey Dalton
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:09 PM

    The sheer benevolence of Amazon and Jeff Bezos! Give that man a Nobel prize!

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Ryan
    Favourite Kieran Ryan
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 12:55 AM

    Oh I’m amazon and I’m giving free internet to all those people for free. I give out free stuff and don’t expect anything in return. I won’t be expecting to mine all your data and use it forever.

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Corey Dalton
    Favourite Corey Dalton
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 2:23 AM

    @Kieran Ryan: Of course! Amazon is such an altruistic organisation!

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tom Dillon
    Favourite Tom Dillon
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 7:49 AM

    @Kieran Ryan: ‘Free’? Who said ‘free’? Oh, that’s right. You did. Just you.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ron don
    Favourite ron don
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:31 PM

    Amazong…….well I really meant Amazing…..mad what one letter can do to ones mind……..mine anyway, and I lied, its not really that Amazing either, I hope they can navigate it better than their delivery drivers, okay they might deliver but my jaysis the driving from them van drivers is brutal, and dangerous…..under pressure to deliver on time or yesterday, awful way to work and putting us road users in danger daily

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stevie Doran
    Favourite Stevie Doran
    Report
    Oct 6th 2023, 11:52 PM

    The end of musk, thank goodness

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Corey Dalton
    Favourite Corey Dalton
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 2:14 AM

    @Stevie Doran: Dream on. Musk is a flawed character but he’s much more of a human being than the Zuckerberg or Bezos cyborgs.

    44
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tommy Haze
    Favourite Tommy Haze
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 12:20 AM

    Asteroid mining is taking off.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anonymous User
    Favourite Anonymous User
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 6:20 AM

    More useless satellite junk flying around the earth just for profit and ego.
    Like there is no enought already…
    hxxp://astria.tacc.utexas.edu/AstriaGraph/

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute I9AQcjXs
    Favourite I9AQcjXs
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 8:21 AM

    While the us poor plebs pay carbon taxes out the wazoo! These billionaires and their corporate cronies take the piss daily..

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James K.
    Favourite James K.
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 3:30 PM

    So that’s how Skynet is going to establish global control…

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sickof thisshit
    Favourite Sickof thisshit
    Report
    Oct 7th 2023, 12:08 PM

    Who are they delivering too,.. did the ISS put in an order. That is impressive. I hope they don’t leave it behind the bin.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds