Amazon is moving decently fast on its plan to deploy thousands of internet satellites. The company has petitioned for FCC consent to dispatch 3,236 satellites as a component of Project Kuiper. The rocket would be gathered into 98 orbital planes, and fly at elevations somewhere in the range of 366 and 391 miles. The filing reiterated Amazon’s plans to associate “tens of millions” of individuals around the globe, in spite of the fact that the company cautioned that it couldn’t cover everything – it requested a waiver on a prerequisite to serve the entire US as its satellites wouldn’t cover parts of Alaska.
They’d use Ka-band frequencies like those Iridium is utilizing for interlinks (not client associations) with its most recent satellites, and Amazon is requesting freedom to utilize hostile to impedance innovation to evade cerebral pains. Also, indeed, Amazon is aware of the potential problems with space debris. The satellites would deorbit themselves in less than 10 years whether or not they were still in contact with Earth.
Amazon didn’t specify a timeline of events for putting the satellites into space. Nonetheless, the FCC documenting demonstrates that it has been pondering this plan for a while. Whether or not it’s timely is another story. SpaceX is already launching its first broadband satellites, and plans roughly three times as many. Although it will take years for satellite constellations like these to roll out, there’s a concern that Amazon might already be at a disadvantage.
