May 23rd saw Amazon announce that it had reached the ‘final milestone’ with its Project Kuiper prototype satellites, and is deorbiting the two craft. “That mission achieved a 100 per cent success rate and helped us practice safe satellite operations,” says the company. “Now, we’re gradually bring those prototypes down as part of our commitment […]
According to a report by Dell’Oro Group, a source for market information about the telecommunications, security, networks and data centre industries, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has surged in recent years to support both residential and enterprise connectivity due to its ease of deployment along with the more widespread availability of 4G LTE and 5G Sub-6GHz […]
A prototype pair of Project Kuiper satellites have managed to exchange data at rates of up to 100 Gb/s in space laser trials. The two satellites were launched in October and the laser links activated despite the satellites travelling at almost 1000 kilometres per hour and with 999 kilometres (621 miles) separating the two spacecraft. […]
Amazon’s Project Kuiper mega-constellation has surprisingly ordered three rocket launches from rival SpaceX. It seems the SpaceX launches are needed to ensure that Kuiper meets its ITU obligations to orbit 50 per cent of its 3,236 fleet by July-2026. Coincidentally, the order comes at the same time as a lawsuit from an institutional investor is […]
Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, says its Project Kuiper broadband system has tested two-way video calls and the delivery of 4K movies. “Five years ago, Project Kuiper was just an idea in a working backwards product development document. In early October, we launched our first satellite prototypes, and after validation of all key systems and sub-systems, […]
Two prototype Amazon Project Kuiper satellites are due for launch today (october 6th), subject to last-minute weather considerations. Project Kuiper will be a direct challenger to Elon Musk’s Starlink. The launch will take place from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on an Atlas V rocket with the launch window opening at 2pm […]
Bob Smith, CEO at the Amazon/Bezos-backed Blue Origin rocket company, is stepping down. He’ll stay in post for the time being in what seem to be a harmonious transfer to Dave Limp who has run Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband division. Blue Origin has suffered some considerable challenges over the past few years and the consensus […]
Euroconsult used their Paris World Satellite Business Week conference to make a dramatic forecast in suggesting that geostationary satellite capacity would shrink to “meaningless” amounts within the next five years, with non-Geo constellations providing 95 per cent or more of global satcom capacity by 2028. Euroconsult’s data showed that today’s non-geo constellations were almost all […]
A pension fund which is a shareholder in Amazon has filed a lawsuit against the directors of Amazon alleging that they failed to consider SpaceX as a launch supplier for the Project Kuiper broadband by satellite scheme. The writ, filed in Delaware’s Chancery Court, argues that the directors “acted in bad faith” in approving the […]
The first two Project Kuiper broadband demo satellites are set to launch in September. The two satellites are very much prototypes and will test orbital frequencies and functionality. “We’ll use findings from the mission to help finalise design, deployment, and operational plans for our commercial satellite system, which will provide reliable, affordable broadband to customers […]