The battle of billionaires in space between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk has entered a new arena: satellite internet.
Amazon, the company that Mr. Bezos started as an online bookseller three decades ago, is now a merchandising behemoth, the owner of the James Bond franchise, a seller of electronic gadgets like Echo smart speakers and one of the most powerful providers of cloud computing.
So perhaps it is not a surprise that Amazon is now launching the first few of thousands of satellites known as Project Kuiper to provide another option for remaining connected in the modern world. The market for beaming high-speed internet to the ground from orbit is currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company, which operates a similar service, Starlink. Starlink, with thousands of satellites in orbit and more launching nearly every week, already serves several million customers around the world.
Image
United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V booster being prepared for the Kuiper 1 mission at Cape Canaveral, Fla.Credit…United Launch Alliance
The first 27 Project Kuiper satellites are scheduled to lift off on Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. They will fly on an Atlas V, a rocket made by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. U.L.A. is providing live coverage in the video player.
The flight is currently set to begin at 7:40 p.m. Eastern.
The launch was originally scheduled to occur as early as 7 p.m. But wind and showers from coastal storms are preventing a launch at that time, and the mission managers are waiting to see if the weather will improve enough to allow a liftoff during the two-hour window in which the flight could occur. The loading of propellants on the rocket has been completed.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
