Amazon.com Inc.’s first batch of operational Project Kuiper satellites lifted off to space late Monday aboard a ULA LLC rocket.

The 27 satellites are set to be joined by more than 3,000 in the coming years. Amazon will use the constellation to provide internet connectivity to consumers, enterprises and the public sector. The company plans to spend more than $10 billion on the initiative.

Amazon previously launched two prototype satellites in 2023 to test onboard networking equipment. The equipment uses infrared lasers to wirelessly transmit data. If a Project Kuiper satellite isn’t close enough to a ground-based user to beam down data, it can leverage the infrared lasers to transfer the data to a nearer satellite that is in range. Amazon coordinates the constellation using a network of ground-based antennas.

Ahead of today’s launch, the company built an expansive supply chain in its home state of Washington to support satellite production. Manufacturing is carried out at a 172,000-square-foot factory in the city of Kirkland. It doubles as a testing facility: Amazon uses liquid nitrogen to simulate the low temperatures that its satellites must withstand in orbit.

At peak capacity, the factory will make five satellites per day. The materials used in production arrive at the plant by way of a logistics facility Amazon built not far from Kirkland. Project Kuiper’s flagship research and development center, in turn, is located in nearby Redmond. 

Amazon has also built a $140 million facility in Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The facility stores Project Kuiper satellites before they take off to space. Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the site where Amazon’s 27 satellites took off on Monday, is located less than an hour’s drive away. 

The retail giant sent the satellites to orbit using ULA’s Atlas V rocket. Amazon has contracted the company for 38 more satellite deployments that will be carried with its newer Vulcan launch vehicle. The rocket’s first phase, which powers the first leg of its journey to orbit, uses engines from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Enterprises LP.

The launches that Amazon has commissioned from ULA will deploy more than half of the 3,200 satellites it plans to place in orbit. The remaining units will be taken to space by Blue Origin, SpaceX Corp. and France-based Arianespace SA.

Amazon plans to start providing satellite connectivity to Project Kuiper customers later this year. According to the company, each of its satellites can process about one terabit of data traffic per second. Consumers will connect to the constellation using compact antennas called customer terminals. 

Image: Amazon