FILE PHOTO: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off carrying Amazon's two prototype relay stations for a space-based internet service it calls Project Kuiper, from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., October 6, 2023. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo
(Reuters) -Amazon.com said on Thursday its two prototype satellites for its planned Kuiper internet network have been operating successfully in orbit, with the project on track to start launching operational satellites by mid-2024. The Kuiper internet network is set to compete against billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink, the world's largest satellite operator, to offer broadband internet service globally to consumers, companies and governments. Amazon said it had achieved a 100% success rate within the first 30 days of the launch of the prototype satellites from Florida aboard an United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. Amazon said it used the prototype satellites for brief two-way video calls, streaming a high-definition movie on Prime Video and ordering items off Amazon's website. "We still have a lot of hard work ahead, and scaling for mass production won't be easy," said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has required Amazon to deploy half of its more than 3,000-planned satellite constellation by 2026.
On the heels of the successful prototype tests, Amazon expects to start building production-ready satellites next month for a launch in the second quarter of 2024, Badyal told Reuters. Badyal declined to say how many satellites Amazon would launch per rocket.
Badyal said he expects the network will be capable of providing broadband coverage in some parts of the world by late 2024, for an early beta phase targeted to begin in early 2025.
Early partners like Vodafone and Verizon are set to become the first telecom firms to beta test the service.
Amazon last year announced a bulk launch deal for 83 launches - the largest commercial rocket procurement ever - from various rocket companies, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, ULA and Europe's Arianespace.
The Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance is set to loft the first several batches of Kuiper satellites aboard its Atlas 5 and the company's upcoming Vulcan rocket.
Rival Starlink uses its own in-house SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets to launch its network, which since 2019 has grown to roughly 5,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit, enabling near-global broadband coverage.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette in New York and Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Will Dunham)
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