Two test satellites blasted off on board a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket emblazoned with Amazon’s famous logo on Friday, ahead of more than 3,200 planned to orbit the Earth to directly challenge Elon Musk’s reign over space broadband real estate.

Signaling the start of the Project Kuiper network, Jeff Bezos and his e-commerce giant Amazon launched the two preliminary satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday, October 6. The satellites, Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2, will orbit 311 miles (500 km) above the Earth’s surface and undergo a series of tests and deployments to establish internet connections to a terminal on the ground.

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Project Kuiper is expected to launch proper before the end of 2024, with internet on offer to some customers by then, and Amazon plans to overall have 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). According to the company’s conditional licence with the US Federal Communications Commission, it must have at least half of its satellites in orbit by mid-2026.

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