"Within Amazon's endeavor to contest Elon Musk's Starlink internet enterprise

 "Within Amazon's endeavor to contest Elon Musk's Starlink internet enterprise

Speculative ventures have been canceled, but Project Kuiper remains one of the Seattle-based company's greatest investments, one of the few to withstand two years of a cost-cutting push that saw several started near the conclusion of Jeff Bezos's stint as chief executive.

"It seemed as if Amazon.com Inc. could have lost one of its satellites for an hour or two after the launch of its first one. At 2:24 p.m., the two prototypes were in orbit over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. on October 6. Both were picked up by an Amazon antenna on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean; however, only one car checked in at a subsequent handoff to a different station. Initially, Amazon looked for a signal from the other spacecraft. looked up at the sky behind the satellite, but nothing was audible.

At PostDoc Brewing, which is close to Amazon's space facilities in the Seattle region, workers had gathered to celebrate the launch. The event had the potential to spoil their enthusiasm. The crew had to wait months to launch the satellites after years of construction. Now that they were operational, Amazon wanted to get in touch with them to confirm that their solar panels were up. If not, the satellites' batteries will run out and they will malfunction, dealing a serious damage to the massive retail and cloud computing company that was already a latecomer to the lucrative race to develop a business offering Internet connectivity from low-Earth orbit. carrying out."

"Satellite operations chief Yonina DeKeyser and her deputies labored to piece together the bits of data they'd acquired inside Amazon's Mission Operations Center, a conference room crammed with big screen TVs, laptops, and energy drink cans. The guidance, navigation, and control team radioed in between the third and fourth encounters to let them know that the missing satellite was fine. Only two operational satellites may have produced the data in the webcast. Rajeev Badyal, the project manager, exclaimed with victory.

"We're positive!" his friends exclaimed as they saw an Amazonian at the brewery fidgeting with his phone and raising clenched fists. Later, the researchers found that some of Amazon's antennas located on the ground were confusing the second satellite for the first."

"Amazon executives speak philanthropically when discussing their satellite initiative, Project Kuiper, highlighting its ability to provide access to global trade and education for those living in rural or underdeveloped locations. Less charitably, Amazon also expects that this investment, worth more than $10 billion, would help it become a major player in the global telecoms industry. Beginning in 2025, the firm will provide distant cell towers from its network, cloud computing and data recovery services for enterprises, and rooftop antennas for private Internet users. Plans to charge cellular carriers for connection in order to connect.

One of the Seattle-based company's largest investments is Project Kuiper, which is one of the few to have survived two years of a cost-cutting drive that saw numerous projects started at the conclusion of Jeff Bezos's time as CEO. Certain speculative initiatives have come to an end. In an industry where there have been more bankruptcy than successful enterprises, this is a massive task. While broadband is already widely accessible, it is uncertain if consumers will be able to buy space-based Internet in many areas where it is not. The Starlink network of internet satellites is operated by Elon Musk, a fellow billionaire, and Bezos. Some watchers of Amazon see Project Kuiper as another front in this battle."

"Amazon is making a wager that its state-of-the-art system can provide enough capacity and Internet speeds to rival terrestrial telecommunications providers as well as Starlink, which has a significant advantage. If nothing else, Amazon is developing a rival service to Musk's at a time when both businesses and governments are trying to lessen their dependence on the volatile and outspoken tycoon.

Amazon engineers have been testing their first satellites for the last two months. They have tested a system of lasers intended to increase each satellite's range, performed a video chat, and purchased a toy rocket kit from Amazon.com. This is when it becomes very tough. By July 2026, Amazon has to construct and discover spacecraft—the equivalent of two satellites per day—in order to comply with the conditions of its license with authorities."

"Building two satellites is a very challenging task. It is quite challenging to construct over 3,000 satellites, according to Badiyal.

Project Kuiper, named for the belt of dwarf planets, ice, and rock beyond Neptune, was conceived as a thought experiment, according to longtime Amazon consumer electronics chief Dave Limp. Bezos has periodically asked executives to consider far-off obstacles that could slow the company, a practice that has led Amazon to spend billions on fleets of big rigs, delivery trucks, and airplanes, among other things.

Amazon's diverse range of businesses, including electronics, film studios, and business software, all depend on access to the Web. "It turns out, if you want to grow, you have to find the millions of people who aren't currently Amazon customers," Limp said in an interview. "Well, what's the point in getting them there?" Amazon executives started to become increasingly concerned about broadband internet about six years ago."

Amazon opted to distribute internet via satellite, among other possibilities, and studied Internet-broadcasting drones and balloons, techniques tested and abandoned by Facebook, now Meta Platforms Inc., and Alphabet Inc.'s Google.

While most communications satellites at the time rested in a geostationary orbit that coincided with the Earth's rotation, fixing each spacecraft from the viewpoint of someone on Earth, this idea was not new; in the 1990s, not far from the suburban Seattle garage where Bezos founded Amazon, a company called Teledesic planned to launch a constellation of hundreds of satellites. "Such satellites power global positioning systems, weather tracking and in-flight Web browsing."

"Space stations and teledesic satellites in very low orbit might benefit from faster ground transit to more effectively rival land-based phone and Internet providers. Bill Gates of Microsoft Corp. and telecom tycoon Craig Dotcom supported McCaw, but the firm shut down after the incident. Because rockets were costly, the aerospace sector would have rather kept producing government-supplied specialized satellites.

Musk took the concept and eliminated the intermediaries over ten years later. He decided to construct the satellite himself since his rocket firm, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., was lowering the cost of entering orbit. To make it happen, Musk recruited Badial, the future CEO of Kuiper.

Although Badyal was born in India, he was raised mostly in Kuwait, where his father, an architect, was sent. He came to study in the US and graduated from Oregon State University with a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering. He was able to get employment at the adjacent Hewlett Packard facility, where he contributed to the design of the printhead used in inkjet printers to transfer ink to paper. Subsequently, he contributed to the development of the first optical mouse before departing to work at Microsoft, where he helped invent the disastrous Zune music player. This left future generations to clean up the mess left by his predecessors.

Consumer electronics have advanced so quickly that businesses outside of the aerospace sector are now able to construct satellites. The proper people, like Badiyal, could swiftly and inexpensively build a new generation of satellites because they were skilled at large-scale production and on-the-fly design adjustments. 2014 saw Badial join the Starlink project and open an office on the outskirts of Redmond, Washington. Four years later, a SpaceX rocket carried the first two satellites into orbit."

Musk took a plane to Seattle in June of 2018. Badial and the majority of his crew left soon after. Coworkers received word of their termination. Badial claims that he and Musk just made the decision to give up. With an eye toward getting the barebones system up and running as soon as possible, Musk placed another lieutenant in charge and gave him strict instructions to pare down the design to the essentials. SpaceX said today that it would build six satellites in a day. Over 2 million consumers are served by more than 5,000 satellites in space.

Bezos famously said that Amazon only ventures into new markets when it has the necessary experience, or can rapidly acquire it. Amazon's satellite endeavor was hardly more than a two-page concept when Limp learned that the original crew of Starlink was searching for jobs. In August 2018, he gave Badiyal a call.

Two months later, Badial and five other former Starlink workers were working at Amazon, creating a new planetarium in two conference rooms with black curtains that seemed to invite inquisitive staff members to peek out. observed. One of the first recruits, Naveen Kachru, said, "It was very safe." Musk referred to Bezos as a copycat on Twitter when his proposal to orbit 3,236 satellites at altitudes ranging from 590 to 630 kilometers above the earth became known few months later.

The device that users would eventually use to receive data from satellites was built by Amazon engineers, and they estimated that they could construct the terminal for around $750. Bezos had them start again from scratch. It has to be made even less expensive. By combining some of the antenna functions, Amazon's antenna leader, Nima Mahanfar, and her team claim to be able to create its primary, 11-inch-square terminal for less than $400. Up to 400 megabits per second of Internet access is possible with it, about twice as fast as the typical broadband bandwidth in American households."

More than 1,600 individuals work at Project Kuiper, including seasoned professionals in consumer electronics and aerospace. With a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, DeKeyser, the head of satellite operations, believes that the Amazon outage was a tremendous chance for him early in his career. This must have been a product of imagination. The team is one of the few unique organizations within Amazon that is mostly managed by non-natives. Paul O'Brien, Kachru, Mahanfar, and the chief satellite engineer collaborated on Microsoft's Zune.

"Innovation needs to happen much faster than in traditional space manufacturing," said Badial, an engineer with a mustachioed mustache, gray hair, a gravelly voice, and a penchant for traditional drinks. Let's test the antenna in a free room. His office at the Project Kuiper headquarters in Redmond, located in a facility that used to make forklifts, looks out over a research and development laboratory where engineers construct bespoke aluminum components, assemble circuit boards, and create a cavernous environment.

Amazon's satellites combine cutting-edge technology, such as optical satellite communications, sometimes referred to as space lasers, with simple, well-tested parts that minimize weight or cost. Caleb Henry, a space industry analyst for Quilty Space, said that Kuiper is creating spacecraft that are "fewer in number, larger in size, and greater in power than SpaceX's first-generation vehicles." .."There's a real difference in design philosophy between the two."

The satellites will launch into their initial orbit once they reach the area within a rocket's nose, until they are directed toward Earth by an automated mechanism. Up until then, the solar panels that were folded before launch have to automatically unfold, depending on technology that dates back almost a century: actuators that heat a wax plug and force a bolt to release the array. expands to give.

The home terminal signals thousands of tiny, green, two-pointed Lego-like antenna modules in a circular array when a consumer opens a webpage. Requests are sent over the Internet to Amazon's ground stations by means of the gateway antennas shaped like bowls. One of the Lego brick sets sends the relevant data back up and then down to the terminal."

"As the ship travels at 17,000 miles per hour (27,359 kilometers per hour), all of this occurs in milliseconds. Once the satellite disappears from view, another perspective ought to become apparent. Each is propelled by a different mechanism. The thrusters' strength is compared by Amazonians to a dragonfly's ability to resist gravity by waving its wings after spending hours in space.

According to two individuals familiar with the subject, Amazon had originally planned to build the satellites for $500,000 each and keep their weight under 500 kilos (1,100 pounds). It was unknown how big and heavy Amazon's next production model would be. Quilty Space calculates that the Kuiper spacecraft will weigh between 600 and 800 kg based on the launch vehicles used by Amazon. Every prototype that Amazon released throughout the launch process was shown enclosed in a human-height steel container that was cubic in shape.

According to Kachru, who is now leading Kuiper's business development division, depending on the nation, Amazon will offer connection directly to both cellular and broadband service providers and individual Internet customers. With the help of Verizon Communications Inc. in the US, Vodafone Group Plc in Europe and Africa, and NTT in Japan, Amazon has announced collaborations. In the second half of next year, service testing will start, with the goal of ultimately selling to millions of users.

"We want to serve enterprises, governments, schools, hospitals, mobile operators, so we don't have a single channel or segment on which we can make money," Kachru said. Amazon has permits to operate in more than 15 countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, Mexico, and the US. The company has not yet revealed its prices.

Through its Amazon Web Services division, the corporation will provide companies and governments with private connection while guaranteeing a level of service quality that SpaceX has not yet provided. In the next years, Amazon's cloud computing competitors won't be able to match the advantage that AWS, the biggest provider of renting computing power and data storage, will have: the ability to provide product bundles that include Internet access. "

"Starlink is another Bezosism: forget about the competition. Kuiper workers don't bring it up, but observers think Amazon has a chance to set itself apart by running a satellite company free of Musk's personal turmoil or commercial conflicts. Although Starlink is the biggest and most powerful constellation to date, other businesses are constructing what the industry refers to as megaconstellations.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Musk has commercial links to Beijing, therefore Taiwanese authorities who want backup internet connectivity in the event of a conflict with China are hesitant to trust him. After Russia's invasion, Starlink became a lifeline for the Ukrainian people. However, it was revealed earlier this year that Musk had turned down Kiev's request to increase coverage in order to facilitate Ukrainian advancement. The wealthiest man in the world wants the war to conclude on terms that benefit Russia, and his biographer has revealed text conversations exchanged between Elon Musk and the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister.

According to WW analyst Lluc Pallerm, SpaceX also avoids the long-term contracts and exclusivity arrangements that commercial clients want. SpaceX did not answer to calls for comment. NSR, an ITH researcher. "They're not thought of as the best partners in the business,"

Julie Zoller, Kuyper's regulatory head, said in an interview that Amazon would defer to the State Department but did not elaborate on how the business would handle the political entanglements. After starting his career installing satellite equipment on US military facilities, Zoller said that he didn't think Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, would negotiate service terms by text messaging. "Customers are literally saying, 'Why can't you all move faster,'" added Kachru. "They enjoy the competitive environment."

Although Kuiper is on pace, the business anticipates releasing prototypes around a year ahead of plan. The evidence is in the classroom: the names of the individuals working on the project until August 2022 are inscribed on each craft's aluminum body component."

"Amazon's first space flight, on a brand-new rocket constructed by a startup, was destroyed on the launch pad. Prior to blowing up, its second, the brand-new Vulcan Centaur constructed by the US space company United Launch Alliance, was supposed to launch this summer. In the course of testing. In an attempt to launch its satellites, Amazon chartered an Atlas V, a 21-year-old Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (ULA) rocket that can lift very big payloads. The purpose of this launch was to take two individuals to the movies. It was like renting a city bus except for rocketry.

The remaining satellites must now be transported there by Amazon. With 47 ULA missions in addition to rockets from ArianeGroup and Bezos' Blue Origin, Project Kuiper is the biggest commercial launch order in history. However, only Atlas, which Amazon has scheduled for eight additional launches, has really taken off and taken off. Blue Origin is years behind schedule with their rocket, and the company has never sent a spaceship into orbit. (Limp, Baida's former boss, departed Amazon last month to take the helm of Blue Origin.)

Due to Kuiper's limited launch window and lack of choices, Amazon had to make an unpleasant arrangement with SpaceX earlier this month in order to plan three flights. According to Amazon, it has been in talks for years with all of the main launch providers. Additionally, it refutes the claim that the Bezos-Musk rivalry pushed up prices and prevented Amazon from considering utilizing SpaceX, as alleged in a lawsuit brought by a pension fund. According to Amazon, the accusations lack merit.

In order to facilitate the rapid loading of Kuiper satellites onto rockets and delivery of the spacecraft to launchpads, ULA is renovating a facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and expanding its plant in Alabama. Manufacturers of avionics equipment and rocket motors are expanding their output. "Everything is headed toward a timely completion," said Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA. "As long as we don't have to completely change the design, we'll be fine."

Although Amazon plans to build the remaining satellites at a dedicated manufacturing site in Kirkland, Washington, the Federal Communications Commission license for Project Kuiper requires that 1,618 of the spacecraft be in place by July 2026 and the remaining half three years later. As a result, Amazon's first satellites are being assembled at Kuiper's headquarters, where crews are still performing utility work and installing machinery. Thus, Amazon's first satellites are recycled from a research and development facility to a crash production line.:configuring.