Amazon Delays Project Kuiper Launch Amid Bad Weather

Amazon’s much touted answer to Elon Musk’s Starlink and Eutelsat’s OneWeb has been delayed again, but this time bad weather is to blame.

Last week Amazon had announced that “Project Kuiper is set to send its first full batch of satellites to space” and “the mission, named “KA-01” for Kuiper Atlas 1, will launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and deploy 27 satellites on Wednesday, 9 April.”

But Amazon has updated last week’s announcement with the following statement. “Update: Due to unfavourable weather conditions, ULA was unable to launch our KA-01 mission on 9 April. We will share a new no earlier than (NET) launch date once it is available.”

Project Kuiper

It comes after the UK communications regulator Ofcom in February had “granted an earth station network licence to Amazon Kuiper Services Europe SARL for its non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite system, which is also known as ‘Kuiper’”.

United Launch Alliance is a joint venture from Boeing-Lockheed Martin, which since 2006 has been offering launch services for other firms.

Amazon said the KA-01 mission will deliver the first 27 Project Kuiper satellites to an altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometres) above Earth.

Project Kuiper will deliver high-speed, low-latency internet to virtually any location on the planet, and it expects to begin delivering service to customers later this year.

Now ULA’s “Kuiper 1” mission page, which provides updates on the launch as well as a launch livestream, offering the following statement.

“The launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Kuiper 1 mission for the Amazon’s Project Kuiper was scrubbed today due to inclement weather,” it stated. “A new launch date will be announced when approved on the range.”

Upgraded satellites

In October 2023 Amazon’s Project Kuiper had launched two prototype satellites (known as Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2) on the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s then new Vulcan Centaur rocket.

But the satellites for the KA-01 mission are described as a significant upgrade from the two prototype satellites it successfully tested during the Protoflight mission in October 2023.

Amazon said it had improved the performance of every system and sub-system on board, including phased array antennas, processors, solar arrays, propulsion systems, and optical inter-satellite links. In addition, the satellites are coated in a dielectric mirror film unique to Kuiper that scatters reflected sunlight to help make them less visible to ground-based astronomers.

Amazon said that following the KA-01 mission, it will continue to increase its production, processing, and deployment rates as it prepares to begin delivering service to customers.

Amazon said it has already begun shipping and processing satellites for the next mission: KA-02 will also use a ULA Atlas V rocket and launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Amazon is racing to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink which already has 8,000 satellites already up in the air. Eutelsat’s OneWeb is also a European-based competitor.