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Amazon is set to launch a $20 billion competitor called 'Project Kuiper' into space to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink with the first potential launch just days away.
The first batch of satellites are expected to launch into space as early as next week as Amazon attempts to give Musk a run for his money.
The firm has obtained 80 launch missions that will send the Project Kuiper internet satellites into orbit.
The hope is that the missions will result in the creation of a constellation that can compete with Starlink.
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Amazon has even said that it has plans to start offering high speed internet to customers ‘later this year’.
While internet from Amazon will eventually be accessible from pretty much ‘any location on the planet’, customers will require a terminal antenna in order to connect.
Back in 2023, Amazon said that its smallest design for a dish was a seven inch square which is the ‘most affordable customer terminal’.
Weighing just 1lb and offering speeds up to 100Mbps, the dish is portable for customers to move around with them.
In a statement at the time, Amazon said: “Project Kuiper is Amazon’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network. Its mission is to bridge the digital divide by providing fast, affordable broadband to communities unserved or underserved by traditional communications technologies.”
Amazon also plans to offer larger dishes to provide internet coverage in residential as well as enterprise locations.
These will have speeds up to 1Gbps, and Amazon estimates it will be able to produce these dishes for ‘less than $400 each’.
Rajeev Badyal, who is the vice president of Project Kuiper, said: “We’ve done extensive testing on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things you can only learn in flight, and this will be the first time we’ve flown our final satellite design and the first time we’ve deployed so many satellites at once.
“No matter how the mission unfolds, this is just the start of our journey, and we have all the pieces in place to learn and adapt as we prepare to launch again and again over the coming years.”
The company hopes to compete with the likes of Starlink.
Owned by SpaceX, the telecommunications provider began launching Starlink satellites in 2019.
As of last year, the constellation now consists of over 7,000 small satellites that are in low Earth orbit.
The firm currently offers internet coverage to over 100 countries and territories around the world.
