Amazon’s first 27 Kuiper broadband sats make it into orbit on an Atlas V

One launch down, 80-plus to go, for a pittance compared to planned AWS spending

Amazon’s first attempt to hoist production versions of its Project Kuiper broadband-beaming satellites appears to have succeeded.

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, from roughly the 28-minute mark:

Youtube Video

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 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 thinks Amazon’s launch deal with Arianespace will cost it a further $2.5 to 3.0 billion, and that the project will cost between $16.5 and 20 billion.

By way of comparison, AWS plans to spend around $100 billion on datacenter and AI infrastructure during 2025.

Kuiper looks like a hobby by comparison.

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 plan to launch over 30,000 broadband satellites. ®