Another batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband satellites has taken flight this morning (Sept. 25).
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket topped with 27 Project Kuiper craft lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today, at 8:09 a.m. EDT (1209 GMT).
Image 1 of 2
The Project Kuiper megaconstellation will eventually consist of about 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). These spacecraft will be lofted on more than 80 launches performed by a variety of rockets — SpaceX‘s Falcon 9, Arianespace’s Ariane 6, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and ULA’s Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur.
Today’s launch was the fifth such mission, following two Atlas V and two Falcon 9 liftoffs that sent a total of 102 Project Kuiper satellites to LEO.
Today’s mission employed an Atlas V 551, the most powerful variant of the workhorse launcher, which features five side-mounted solid rocket boosters.
The Atlas V’s upper stage deployed the 27 satellites at an altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers). After that, “the Project Kuiper team will take over command of the mission from our 24/7 mission operations center in Redmond, Washington, confirm satellite health and ultimately raise the satellites to their assigned orbit of 392 miles (630 km) above Earth,” Amazon representatives wrote in a mission description.
Source link
