The first 27 satellites for the Jeff Bezos’s Project Kuiper internet network will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Wednesday from an Atlas 5 rocket.
The $10bn (£7.8bn) project is expected to take several years to complete but Amazon aims to branch into the UK internet market after Project Kuiper was approved by regulator Ofcom.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the first two demonstration satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet constellation lifts off from Cape Canaveral (Photo: Paul Hennesy/Anadolu Agency)“It shows a more broad-based competition across the satellite space now that you have many companies operating in low-Earth orbit.”
Hiring ex-Starlink employees to launch satellite rival
To develop the project, the Bezos-led company hired a team of engineers who had previously worked at Starlink but were dismissed by Musk for allegedly violating company policies.
An Atlas 5 rocket at Amazon’s satellite processing facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in March 2025 (Photo: Amazon/AFP)
These pizza box-sized antennas that will communicate with Kuiper satellites overhead are intended to cost less than $500 to build, the company has claimed.
Notably, Starlink has become essential for communications in war-torn Ukraine, where hospitals and the military rely on it to operate.
Project Kuiper also intends to tap into this market with “high-speed, low-latency internet to virtually any location on the planet”.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket stands on the pad with a payload of Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet network satellites at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida on April 9, 2025 (Photo: Steve Nesius/Reuters)Mobile operators have been partnered with satellite network companies “as a way to extend the reach of their own networks,” said Hatt.
“So satellite is seen as a pragmatic way to extend that and kind of have a win-win situation where the customers of the mobile operators are able to get better and extended connectivity, and the satellite partners are able to participate in the revenue share.”
A Starlink terminal pictured in Ukraine (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)Ending the SpaceX monopoly
The satellite industry has seen “a huge growth in the range of players and the capacity in orbit since Starlink initially filed and then launched the first of its satellites,” Hatt said.
The launch of a Starlink V2 mini-satellites from Space Launch Complex at Vandenberg Space Force Base seen over the Pacific Ocean from Encinitas, California (Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters)
SpaceX’s Starlink is the dominant force in the field, but it is far from being the only player.
Canada’s Telesat is reportedly expected to add 300 and the German start-up Rivada 600 satellites.
Project Kuiper’s satellites encapsulated in an Atlas V rocket fairing at Amazon’s satellite processing facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in March 2025 (Photo: Amazon/AFP/Getty Images)
Satellite networks are increasingly becoming “a strategically important asset as part of a vertically integrated business model,” Hatt said. “Both Starlink and Amazon have that and I think we’re going to see that play out over the coming years.”
“I mean, it’s only been going for three years. So we’re really at the very beginning of that. And I expect what you will see is more sophisticated technology being embarked on those satellites.”
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