Amazon has barely deployed 100 of its more-than 3,200 internet-beaming satellites, and already it’s added a major airline as a Project Kuiper customer.
The company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos has announced that JetBlue Airways is the first airline with plans to eventually bring Amazon’s satellite internet network to its passengers. The news comes as Amazon gears up for its fifth-overall mission since late-April to deliver a batch of its satellites into low-Earth orbit – its first Project Kuiper mission in more than a month.
The mission, using a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to deploy the satellites after launching from Florida’s Space Coast, would bring the total of operational Kuiper satellites to 129.
Here’s what to know about the JetBlue partnership, as well as the next Project Kuiper mission due to get off the ground from Cape Canaveral.
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What is Project Kuiper?
Amazon’s Project Kuiper intends to one day provide high-speed internet to customers around the world. To achieve that goal, the company has begun building a constellation of satellites linked to a global network of antennas, fiber and internet connection points on the ground.
Amazon has touted the service as one that will benefit “unserved and underserved communities” in rural areas where internet access may be elusive.
Project Kuiper is a subsidiary of Amazon, the online commerce behemoth that billionaire Bezos founded in 1994.
An estimated $10 billion Amazon initiative, Project Kuiper includes a $140 million, 100,000-square-foot processing plant at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida that will prep Project Kuiper’s satellites for launch from Cape Canaveral.
JetBlue selects Project Kuiper for in-flight Wi-Fi
A JetBlue commercial airliner takes off in 2024 from Las Vegas International Airport.
JetBlue Airways, a low-cost airline headquartered in New York, will be the first airline to implement Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite technology, Amazon said in a September press release.
“The collaboration will enhance in-flight connectivity, enabling travelers to better stream, scroll, and share while flying JetBlue,” Amazon said in a statement.
Under the agreement, JetBlue will implement Project Kuiper internet on select aircraft beginning in 2027 as part of its free Fly-Fi service introduced in 2013.
“Whether it’s binge-watching a favorite show, staying connected with loved ones, or wrapping up a work project, we’re always looking for ways to make our customers’ time in the air as connected and productive as they want it to be,” JetBlue President Marty St. George said in a statement.
Amazon has estimated that Project Kuiper could begin delivering service to customers by late 2025. However, it will take years for all 3,232 first-generation satellites to be deployed and operational at an altitude closer to Earth’s atmosphere where they can circle Earth quickly.
What other companies are Project Kuiper internet customers?
In April, Amazon signed an agreement with European plane maker Airbus to integrate Project Kuiper connectivity into the company’s aircraft.
Under the contract, Airbus’ High Bandwidth Connectivity Plus customers will be able to use Project Kuiper’s low-latency in-flight connectivity service.
Such partnerships further “Amazon’s vision to keep customers on planes connected, no matter where they’re headed,” the company said in a statement.
When is the next Amazon satellite, United Launch Alliance rocket launch?
Amazon is planning to deploy another 27 Kuiper satellites into low-Earth orbit as early as Thursday, Sept. 25.
Following two missions using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket as a launch service provider, Amazon is once again turning to the United Launch Alliance and its venerable Atlas V. The rocket is due to liftoff from Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida during a 29-minute launch window that opens at 8:09 a.m., according to the ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The fifth Kuiper deployment overall, the mission is named KA-03 because it is the third launch on an Atlas V rocket.
Once the rocket deploys the satellites at 280 miles above Earth, Amazon’s Project Kuiper team will take control from an operations center in Redmond, Washington, and raise them to an altitude of about 392 miles, according to Amazon.
Contributing: Rick Neale, Florida Today
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: JetBlue signs on as Kuiper customer ahead of next Amazon rocket launch