Kuiper Internet Satellites [UPSC Notes]

E-commerce giant Amazon unveiled plans to launch its first internet satellites into space in the first half of 2024. This is an important development in the field of science and technology and is hence a topic relevant for the IAS exam.

What is Project Kuiper?

Amazon’s satellite internet division, Project Kuiper, will start mass-producing satellites in 2023.

• Those are the first of more than 3,000 satellites that the tech giant aims to put into low-Earth orbit over the following few years.
• Amazon intends to use a new rocket from the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance to launch two prototype satellites early this year (2023).
• The business introduced the low-cost consumer terminal for Project Kuiper, capable of 400 Mbps download speeds.

Project Kuiper has three main parts: 

• Ground infrastructure:
  • Amazon’s ground infrastructure includes gateway antennas that securely send and receive customer data to and from satellites, along with telemetry, tracking, and control (TT&C) antennas that keep the satellites properly operating. 
    • Global networking connects those gateway antennas to the internet, public cloud, or private networks.
• Satellites:
  • They operate in low Earth orbit (LEO) and relay data traffic to and from the gateway antennas and customers. 
• Customer terminals:
  • These are the technologies that Project Kuiper customers use to receive broadband service. 
  • fThe terminals combine antennas and processors into a single, compact system to deliver connectivity.

Read more about the space internet in the linked article.

Project Kuiper Applications

• Reliable access to broadband: The project aims to serve the unserved and underserved communities, which will help them access modern communications, education, health services, and other important resources.
• Project Kuiper is an Amazon initiative, part of the same Devices and Services division responsible for Kindle, Echo, Fire TV, eero, Ring, and other tech devices.

Kuiper Internet Satellites:- Download PDF Here