Kuiper Systems LLC, the satellite network constellation subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., has achieved a big milestone after successfully testing its laser-based communications technology in space with two prototype Project Kuiper satellites.

Project Kuiper is the name of Amazon’s initiative to challenge SpaceX Corp.’s Starlink service, and aims to provide broadband internet access from satellites to millions of people across the world who lack reliable connectivity to the web. The project will also help to boost the reach of Amazon Web Services Inc.’s cloud computing platform, and is even being tested by the U.S. military to improve its own communications network.

“In early November, we established the first successful optical links between our two prototype satellites, allowing us to send and receive data at speeds of up to 100Gbps for entire test windows of an hour or more,” Amazon revealed in a blog post today.

Just like Starlink, Project Kuiper intends to use lasers to beam internet data from one satellite to another. With this capability, its satellites will be able to connect with both ground stations on Earth, and also adjacent satellites located in orbit. The result will be a fully connected mesh network that can connect with every corner of the planet.

Amazon said this is an important capability for satellites that will operate in regions without any nearby ground stations. They’ll be able to serve cruise liners in the middle of the ocean, or aircraft making a transatlantic flight, for example. It will make it possible to “securely uplink data from effectively any location on Earth, transmit it through space via laser communications, and downlink it to their destination of choice,” Amazon explained.

During testing, the prototype satellites demonstrated that they could send data in both directions over a distance of almost 621 miles. The laser technology is known as “optical inter-satellite links” or OISL, and will enable all of the satellites in Amazon’s planned constellation to remain in constant contact with one another.

According to Amazon’s tests, the OISL technology can match Starlink’s connectivity speeds of about 100 gigabytes per second. The company plans to install the OISL technology on every satellite it launches. “These capabilities increase throughput and reduce latency across our constellation, and provide more flexibility to connect Kuiper customers across land, sea, air and space,” the company added.

OISL may even be able to achieve faster internet speeds than traditional, land-based broadband connections. That’s because light travels faster in the vacuum of space than it does through a fiber-optic cable.

The successful test is a big milestone for Project Kuiper, which ultimately envisages a constellation of 3,236 satellites. The company has previously said it plans to begin mass-producing its unmanned spacecraft at a factory in Kirkland, Washington, later this month.

Amazon revealed last month that its prototype satellites had successfully transmitted data from space to its ground-based computers. At the time it demonstrated a video call, a movie being streamed from its Amazon Prime Video service, and an e-commerce purchase from the Amazon.com website. But it was only today that the company revealed the laser communications system that enabled these transmissions.

Starlink uses its own implementation of OISL technology. Two more planned rivals – Telesat Corp. and Rivada Space Networks GmbH – also plan to use OISL to facilitate communications.

Starlink has a big head start on Project Kuiper, with more than 2 million global subscribers. And today, the Federal Communications Commission said it will allow SpaceX to test Starlink to beam data to smartphones in more than two dozen locations in the U.S.

However, Project Kuiper has attracted significant interest from the U.S. government, with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration last year awarding it a $67 million grant to help it demonstrate an in-space optical relay network for satellite communications.

Amazon reportedly plans to begin launching Project Kuiper’s first satellites during the first half of next year, before beta-testing the network with select customers later in 2024.

Image: Amazon