Amazon’s race to challenge SpaceX in orbit is getting a helping hand from its chief competitor: SpaceX itself, which will launch the next batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet satellites skyward on Wednesday.
A flock of 24 Kuiper internet satellites will ride aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket before dawn. The mission, dubbed KF-01, has a 27-minute launch window that opens at 2:18 AM ET and will lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Once complete, it will bring the total number of Kuiper satellites on orbit to 78. Amazon ultimately plans to deploy more than 3,200 spacecraft in its first generation constellation in low Earth orbit, aiming to stake a serious claim in the satellite internet market — a market that is currently dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink’s network of roughly 8,000 satellites.
While Kuiper and SpaceX may make for strange bedfellows, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon inked a three-launch deal with SpaceX back in December 2023. That agreement came scarcely two months after the e-commerce giant faced a lawsuit from shareholders over an earlier decision not to consider SpaceX when it doled out its first round of lucrative launch contracts, even though the Falcon 9 is the most reliable rocket flying today.
The catch is, at least half of Kuiper’s initial constellation must be deployed by by the end of July 2026, per its license from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The clock is ticking: among the other selected launch providers — United Launch Alliance (ULA), Arianespace, and Blue Origin — only ULA has an operational rocket available to carry satellites to orbit. ULA launched the first two batches of Kuiper satellites; the first batch launched in April.
Blue Origin, Bezos’ other company, will eventually carry Kuiper satellites on its massive New Glenn rocket, but it has only flown once so far, and it did not manage to recover the booster. The second launch is currently scheduled for August 15.
