{"id":31116,"date":"2023-12-03T15:40:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T15:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/amazon-taps-falcon-9-rocket-to-help-launch-kuiper-satellites-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2023-12-03T15:40:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-03T15:40:09","slug":"amazon-taps-falcon-9-rocket-to-help-launch-kuiper-satellites-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/amazon-taps-falcon-9-rocket-to-help-launch-kuiper-satellites-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon taps Falcon 9 rocket to help launch Kuiper satellites | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Amazon\u00a0on Friday said it booked three Falcon 9 launches with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to help deploy the e-commerce giant’s Project Kuiper satellite network, tapping a rival in the satellite internet business for its multi-billion dollar launch campaign.<\/p>\n

Amazon aims to build Kuiper as a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit to beam broadband internet globally and compete with SpaceX’s Starlink network, which already has some 5,000 satellites providing nearly global coverage.<\/p>\n

Amazon, which vowed in 2019 to invest $10 billion into the project, will put an unspecified number of Kuiper satellites on three Falcon 9 rockets from SpaceX beginning in mid-2025, the company said Friday.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9 missions add to 83 rocket launches it had already procured from Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin, the Boeing-Lockheed,\u00a0joint venture United Launch Alliance and Europe’s Arianespace in a multi-billion dollar launch deal.<\/p>\n

Amazon\u00a0was sued by a shareholder\u00a0in August for not adequately considering SpaceX as a launch provider when it was selecting most of the 83 other rides to space in late 2021 and 2022. The company said the lawsuit’s claims “are completely without merit.”<\/p>\n

Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, a fund that lodged the suit in a Delaware court, said in its complaint the launch contracts were the second-largest capital expenditure in Amazon’s history at the time.<\/p>\n

Amazon’s largest acquisition is its $13.7 billion deal to buy Whole Foods in 2017.<\/p>\n

Amazon’s announcement that it added SpaceX rockets to its launch campaign comes just three days before its deadline to lodge a substantive defence against the shareholder lawsuit, according to a court scheduling order.<\/p>\n

Amazon in September filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it would detail its defence in a later briefing. On Friday, the same day as Amazon’s SpaceX announcement, the court set a deadline of Dec. 4 for Amazon to outline its motion to dismiss.<\/p>\n

SpaceX’s partially reusable Falcon 9 rockets have been a crucial advantage over rivals in its rapid deployment of Starlink, a fast-growing internet network that made the Musk-owned company the world’s largest satellite operator.<\/p>\n

Eutelsat’s OneWeb, another satellite internet rival, relied on Russia’s Soyuz rocket for deploying the bulk of its network.\u00a0But OneWeb turned to SpaceX\u00a0when Russia invaded Ukraine and\u00a0seized $50 million worth of the company’s satellites.<\/p>\n

US\u00a0regulators require Amazon to deploy half of the Kuiper network by 2026. The company\u00a0launched its first two prototype satellites\u00a0in orbit in October and\u00a0announced successful tests\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n

Amazon expects to deploy enough satellites for “early customer pilots” in the second half of 2024. It plans to use United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 and the yet-to-launch Vulcan rocket for the first few batches of satellites.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n