Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband communications mega-constellation, a future competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink service, has launched its first operational satellites to low-Earth orbit. Following a scrubbed first launch attempt, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 551, standing atop Space Launch Complex 41 in Florida, lofted Project Kuiper (KA-01), the first of more than 80 Kuiper launches over the coming years.
The Atlas V launched on Monday, April 28, at 7:01 PM EDT (23:01 UTC), at the start of a two hour window ending at 9:00 PM EDT (01:00 UTC on April 10). The launch flew on a northeast trajectory, which took the 27 satellites to an initial 450 km altitude circular orbit inclined 51.9 degrees to the equator.