Amazon has signed contracts for 83 rocket launches to launch Internet satellites into space. Over the next five years, three companies will use these launches to raise satellites for Project Kuiper, but the rockets for that do not yet exist.
Amazon has signed contracts with Arianespace and United Launch Alliance. The company has also signed a contract with Blue Origin. Blue Origin was founded and is still led by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. Amazon plans to launch 3,236 small Internet satellites in the next five years. With this constellation, Amazon wants to offer a global internet network, comparable to SpaceX’ Starlink and OneWeb. Amazon has been talking about such a network for years. So far, no satellites have been launched, but the company aims to do so before the end of this year.
What is striking about the plan is that none of the booked rockets still exist at the moment. 38 launches have been booked for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, the successor to the current Atlas V, also known as the ‘workhorse of the industry’. In addition, there must be 18 launches with the Ariane 6 from Arianespace. That rocket is still being built as a successor to the Ariane 5, but the design has been delayed for years. Blue Origin will provide twelve launches with a New Glenn. That should be the company’s first orbital rocket, but it doesn’t exist yet either. Blue Origin also includes an option for fifteen extra launches.
Amazon did sign a contract with United Launch Alliance in April last year for nine launches aboard an Atlas V. That is planned for later this year. The company is also collaborating with ABL Space Systems for two launches of KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, but that company also does not currently have an operational rocket. The KuiperSats are prototypes of the satellites. The new launches are not a replacement for those existing contracts.
Amazon wants to compete with SpaceX with the new satellite network. That is already working hard on Starlink and uses its own Falcon rockets for this. There are other parties that would like to build large satellite constellations. Europe also wants that, for example. There is a lot of criticism of the plans from governments and academia. For example, satellite networks can ruin astronomical observations.