With Kuiper, Amazon becomes the first space big tech
It's not that Apple, Meta and Google haven't thought about activities based on satellites orbiting the Earth: in reality they've all tried, but now Amazon is the first technological giant that can also define itself as space-based.
Amazon is the first space big tech.
After a year of delays, the tech giant founded by Jeff Bezos launched the first two satellite prototypes of the Project Kuiper broadband constellation on October 6 and, 10 days later, confirmed that they had survived the journey to an orbit above the Earth .
It was 2019 when regulatory filings revealed that Kuiper Systems LLC, a company seeking permission to launch thousands of satellites, was a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon. Bezos had thus entered the space race with a project named after the Dutch-American astronomer and planetary scientist. Not only that, surprisingly he had chosen Amazon as the corporate headquarters of the new satellite constellation rather than his other space company, Blue Origin.
Fellow tech giants Apple, Meta and Google have also been mulling satellite-based businesses orbiting the Earth, but last week Amazon became the first tech giant to actually start using computers in space.
So what has made Amazon's investment in Kuiper, on the order of $10 billion and likely the company's second-largest ever behind Whole Foods, successful so far?
As Tim Fernholz recounts on Quartz , founder Jeff Bezos' familiarity and passion for the space may be part of the decision, but the ability to dish out so much money has always been part of Amazon's secret sauce.
All the details.
THE STATE OF AMAZON'S KUIPER PROTOTYPES
“Kuiper project engineers have confirmed that our KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 satellites are fully activated, generating power independently and communicating with our mission operations center,” he explained on his Amazon site in a post published on October 16 .
THE NEXT PHASE
The next phase of Amazon's current mission will focus on the system's data network, including tests on Internet links and customer terminal antennas.
META ALSO LOOKED AT SPACE
In reality, Amazon is not the only technological giant to have thought about taking computers into space, recalls Quartz .
Meta and Google, both software companies, not hardware makers, measured their future prospects by how many users they could add to their platforms. Strategists at both companies saw expanding Internet access as vital and viewed space investments as a way to expand their customer base, particularly in rural areas and emerging markets where terrestrial fiber connections had yet to arrive , explains the American newspaper.
In 2013, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched internet.org, a partnership designed to expand web access around the world. The project has gone so far as to include plans for endurance drones that hover above the planet, transmitting connectivity to the Earth below, but also satellite connectivity.
Facebook has leased capacity from a Eutelsat spacecraft to provide internet access over Africa. But the satellite was destroyed in 2016 when a SpaceX rocket exploded during pre-launch tests. Later, a Facebook subsidiary worked to develop an Internet satellite called Athena that used a unique radio system, but never managed to get permission from the FCC to demonstrate the technology in space, rebuilt Quartz again.
GOOGLE'S ATTEMPT
Meanwhile, Google has also adopted a similar program. His main bet was on balls. As Quartz summarizes, the Google Loon project promised to use high-altitude balloons with radio systems to float above areas with limited connectivity, transmitting the internet below. Big G had also been in talks with telecommunications entrepreneur Greg Wyler, whose company O3B launched a satellite network to provide connectivity in emerging markets, which was later bought by SES. Wyler proposed a more elaborate version of the network to Google, but the plan never came to fruition due to cost concerns.
Wyler would eventually launch a similar collaboration with Elon Musk and SpaceX before the two entrepreneurs went their separate ways, with SpaceX launching the Starlink network and Wyler founding OneWeb.
AND THE APPLE ONE
Apple has also set its sights on space. In 2019, Bloomberg revealed that the Cupertino giant had created a division that worked on its satellite network to connect iPhones. Apple never commented on the effort, but it appears it was shelved in favor of a more direct approach. For several years, Apple has leased capacity and funded upgrades for Globalstar, a small satellite company, and revealed last year that its spacecraft would provide dedicated emergency connectivity for iPhone users.
AMAZON'S INVESTMENT
So, according to Quartz , Bezos' willingness to make a big bet on space set him apart from executives at Meta, Google and Apple who flirted with capital-intensive communications networks without greenlighting projects.
Amazon's investment in Kuiper, in the range of $10 billion, is believed to be the company's second-largest investment ever, behind only its $13.7 billion acquisition of grocer Whole Foods in 2017 .
THE BEZOS PARABLE
Bezos' familiarity and passion for the space may have been part of the driver of the decision, but the ability to dish out so much money, however, has always been part of Amazon's secret sauce, Quartz argues. For years, investors have wondered how it could maintain its stock price without making huge profits, as it invested in the logistics networks underlying its e-commerce products, and then developed the network of data centers behind Amazon Web Services, now the primary driver of the company's profits. Furthermore, AWS's own architecture gives the company experience in managing secure networks for the world's most demanding customers, from artificial intelligence start-ups to the US Department of Defense, the newspaper highlights.
AT WHAT POINT IS THE KUIPER PROJECT
Amazon launched Project Kuiper in 2019, hoping to use low-Earth orbit satellites to increase access to high-speed, low-latency broadband in areas that currently lack reliable internet connectivity. Amazon operates a research and development center for the project in Redmond and last year announced plans for a manufacturing plant in Kirkland to make the satellites.
In July, however, the Seattle giant founded by Jeff Bezos announced that it will invest 120 million dollars in a plant to prepare Kuiper satellites for launch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
With the launch of the first prototype Internet satellites into space, the company plans to offer the first commercial tests shortly thereafter. Amazon intends to launch a total of 3,236 satellites to provide global connectivity and, under its current license with the Federal Communications Commission, is on track to have half of them in orbit and operational by the end of 2026. In an explanation on Amazon's website Amazon, the company said that “its first production satellites are on track for launch in the first half of 2024, to be in beta testing with the first commercial customers by the end of 2024.”
COMPETITION WITH STARLINK AND MORE
Thus Bezos with the Amazon Kuiper project is positioning himself in competition with Starlink which, at the moment, makes SpaceX the largest satellite operator in the world. Amazon's other rivals include Canada's Telesat, which has not yet launched satellites, and OneWeb which has built a network of 620 satellites now owned by French satellite company Eutelsat, which offers its Internet service mainly to governments and businesses.
But the question is whether these players will actually catch up to Elon Musk's Starlink.
At Breaking Defense telecommunications industry consultant Tim Farrar noted that even if other constellations like Kuiper and OneWeb manage to scale up and can provide global access similar to Starlink, it may be difficult for new players to convince customers to sign up. “They will be held to higher standards because Starlink is already on the market with a global service that offers high bandwidth,” Farrar added.
THE PRODUCTION CHALLENGE
However, for Amazon to produce so many satellites in such a short amount of time would be impressive; getting them into space will be equally difficult.
To launch the Kuiper satellites, Amazon signed contracts for 38 launches with Ula in April 2022; 18 launches with the European company Arianespace; and 12 launches with Blue Origin , with an option for as many as 15 additional launches with the privately held venture owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. So Amazon was careful not to discard rival SpaceX, a leader in rocket launches, as a launch supplier for its Kuiper satellites.
Not only,
A shareholder of the Seattle tech giant has filed a lawsuit against company founder Jeff Bezos and his board for allegedly exercising bad judgment and failing to act in good faith in selecting launch providers for Project Kuiper since the Amazon's board awarded billions of dollars in contracts to Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, and did not consider SpaceX, owned by rival Elon Musk, as an alternative launch provider despite its proven track record.
Amazon has defended itself by arguing that the prosecution's claims are "completely without merit".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/con-kuiper-amazon-diventa-la-prima-big-tech-spaziale/ on Tue, 24 Oct 2023 05:33:02 +0000.