Amazon takes on Elon Musk's Starlink by launching its first satellites that will beam high-speed internet service to Earth

An Atlas V rocket, operated by United Launch Alliance LLC, lofted the pair of satellites en route to orbit from Florida at 2:06 p.m. local time Friday. The mission is still ongoing, and it’s unclear when the satellites will be deployed from the rocket. 

Project Kuiper’s goal is to eventually put 3,326 satellites into low Earth orbit, where they will beam broadband internet service to the ground below, similar to Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink. The two launched Friday, KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, are test satellites that will allow Amazon to demonstrate the ability to send and receive broadband signals.

This mission has been long delayed. Amazon originally hoped to launch these satellites a year ago on a different, experimental rocket. However, the company wound up switching the launch vehicle for these satellites multiple times, eventually landing on ULA’s workhorse Atlas V rocket, in order to get the satellites into space more quickly. 

To be compliant with its license with the Federal Communications Commission, Amazon needs to launch half of its Kuiper constellation by 2026. 

Its two relatively small test satellites, thought to weigh between 1,300 and 1,550 pounds (600 and 700 kilograms) each, were the only payloads on board the Atlas V rocket, which is capable of launching up to 44,000 pounds of cargo to low-Earth orbit.

“It’s like using a tractor-trailer to transport a couple of suitcases,” said Brian Weeden, director of program planning for the Secure World Foundation, a space sustainability nonprofit. “But I don’t think they had any other choice.”