Amazon has announced that it will be launching the first two test satellites for its Kuiper broadband network on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket as early as next month. This change in plans comes after ULA delayed the first flight of its Vulcan rocket until the fourth quarter of this year. The delay is to allow ULA to strengthen the structure of the Vulcan upper stage’s liquid hydrogen tank after it experienced a leak and resulted in a destructive fireball during testing.
Originally, the first flight of the Vulcan rocket was expected to carry the first two prototype satellites for Amazon’s Kuiper constellation. However, those satellites have been in storage since March, awaiting the launch of Vulcan. Now, these satellites will be launched on the ULA Atlas V rocket.
The launch of ULA’s Atlas V rocket with the Kuiper satellites is scheduled for September 26, after another mission at the end of this month. The September slot became available due to delays in other missions on ULA’s launch schedule. ULA plans to double its launch capacity in the coming years with the support of an investment from Amazon.
Amazon had previously signed a contract for 38 launches with ULA’s Vulcan rocket, as well as additional launches with Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and Arianespace’s Ariane 6 launcher. This will fulfill the launch needs for all 3,200 satellites of Amazon’s Kuiper broadband network.
It is important to note that the first two Kuiper test satellites were initially contracted to fly on a rocket from ABL Space Systems. However, Amazon decided to move them to the ULA’s Vulcan rocket. The design of Amazon’s Kuiper satellites is still largely undisclosed, but it is known that they are three-dimensional in shape and are not flat-packed like SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.