Amazon has officially announced to launch thousands of satellites to provide internet services around the globe. Amazon has filed papers to the US Government through its subsidiary Kuiper Systems LLC as reported by GeekWire.
Project Kuiper is named on the Dutch–American astronomer Gerard Kuiper who is considered as the “the father of modern planetary science”. According to the reports, Kuiper Systems will launch 3,236 satellites in the Low Eart Orbit to provide internet access to tens of millions of people around the world.
“Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world,”. “This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet. We look forward to partnering on this initiative with companies that share this common vision.”
Amazon Spokesperson
How Project Kuiper will work?
Project Kuiper will have three set of satellites which will operate in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on different altitudes. 784 satellites at 367 miles, 1,296 satellites at 379 miles and 1,156 satellites at 391 miles. This satellites will operate from 56 degrees North (roughly in line with the middle of Scotland) to 56 degrees south (which is below the southernmost tip of South America) covering almost 95% of the Earth’s surface.
With this new announcement
Facebook under a small subsidiary called PointView Tech is also developing its own internet satellite which is said to be 10x faster than SpaceX Starlink Constellation.
This project still requires approval from US Government Authorities so there is no time available when it will join the Earth’s orbit. Another concern raises over this is how Amazon will demolish the satellites after their work is done as Orbital Debris has become a major issue since countries are demolishing their decommissioned satellites in the outer space.
