Amazon said it plans to launch its first Internet satellite into space in the first half of 2024 to provide satellite Internet services worldwide in order to improve its competitiveness.
Amazon said its satellite Internet unit, Project Kuiper, plans to start mass production of satellites by the end of 2023 and launch its first satellites in the first half of next year. To prepare for those launches, Amazon plans to launch two prototype rockets into space aboard United Launch Alliance rockets in the coming months.
“We will definitely finish testing satellites for commercial use in 2024,” Amazon Senior Vice President Dave Lemp said at a conference in Washington.
Lemp, who oversees Amazon’s consumer devices, said the company plans to build “three to five” satellites a day to achieve that goal. At this rate, Amazon is on track to launch half as many satellites as the entire network in three years.
Musk’s space company SpaceX, which has been seen as a competitor by Amazon, already has about 4,000 satellites in space. Amazon plans to inject more than $1 billion into the project, surpassing its competitors in terms of capital investment.
Amazon.com also revealed three different terminals or antennas that will connect users’ Internet to the satellites in orbit.
Amazon said in a statement that we produce a “standard customer terminal,” an 11-inch square antenna that provides customers with Internet speeds of 400 megabits per second.
Amazon has not yet disclosed how it will price the “Kuiper,” but said its customer terminals will cost less than $400 to manufacture. If Amazon sells the terminal at cost, it could be below the price point of SpaceX, which charges U.S. customers a one-time hardware fee of $599 and a monthly Internet service fee of $120.
