United Launch Alliance And Amazon Set First Launch For SpaceX Starlink Competitor Project Kuiper

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A launch date is set for the first batch of what will be thousands of satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper as the company looks to play catch-up with SpaceX and its Starlink internet constellation.

United Launch Alliance is targeting a three-hour window that opens at noon Eastern time on April 9. It will send up 27 satellites on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41.

The KA-01 mission, which stands for Kuiper Atlas 1, will be ULA's first launch of the year and the first of dozens Amazon has bought to get 3,232 satellites into low-Earth orbit by 2029.

SpaceX already has nearly 6,500 of its Starlink satellites in an operational orbit serving more than 5 million customers worldwide.

Amazon is primed, though, to start knocking out as many launches as it can. It has contracted to use eight of the remaining Atlas V rockets as well as an additional 38 on ULA's new Vulcan rocket. In addition, the company has launches lined up with Jeff Bezos's rocket company Blue Origin, European company Arianespace and even a couple of launches with SpaceX.

Amazon's license from the Federal Communications Commission requires half of the satellites be placed in orbit by July 31, 2026.

So far, Amazon has flown two test satellites—in late 2023. That paved the way, though, for operational hardware production at company facilities in Washington. Also in the works is a new satellite processing facility at an 80-acre site at the Kennedy Space Center's former Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida.

"We've designed some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and every launch is an opportunity to add more capacity and coverage to our network," Rajeev Badyal, vice president of Project Kuiper, said in a press release. "We've done extensive testing on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things you can only learn in flight."

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