Amazon on Monday launched its first batch of satellites to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink constellation in providing broadband internet access around the globe.
Amazon used a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to put 27 Kuiper broadband internet satellites into low-Earth orbit (about 280 miles high) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The satellites will eventually move into orbit 392 miles above the planet.
“While this is the first step in a much longer journey to launch the rest of our low Earth orbit constellation, it represents an incredible amount of invention and hard work,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy posted on X. “Am really proud of the collective team.”
Monday’s launch is the first of 80 scheduled missions to bring Amazon satellites into orbit. The missions will take 3,236 satellites into space in hopes of creating a constellation that will offer internet access this year.
SpaceX operates about 7,200 internet satellites and has launched 50 satellite missions this year.
Amazon’s project is subject to a strict deadline under the Federal Communications Commission, which requires the company to field 1,618 satellites by mid-2026.
