Amazon plans to create a satellite constellation of 3236 units to provide access to the Internet

Amazon Internet giant, founded by Jeff Bezos, also the founder of Blue Origin, is interested in gaining the right to use the frequency band to control thousands of Internet satellites. Photo: Kate Patterson for SpaceNews.

Amazon joins the list of companies planning to create constellations of thousands of satellite units for broadband Internet access. The Internet trading giant has filed a request to international regulators for the right to create a constellation of 3,236 satellites.

Amazon has not disclosed the company that will build the satellites for it, nor the date of their launch, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC ) has not yet provided market access for this system.

An application to create an Amazon group has been submitted to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) under the name Kuiper Project (Kuiper Systems). Amazon has confirmed its involvement in the Kuiper project in a statement to SpaceNews.

“The Kuiper project is a new initiative to launch a low-orbit satellite constellation that will provide high-speed, low-latency broadband connectivity for maintenance-free and neglected corners of the globe.” - states Amazon. “This is a long-term project, the prospect of which is to serve tens of millions of people who lack basic access to high-speed Internet. “We look forward to building partnerships with companies that share our goals.”

Amazon satellite news was originally posted by GeekWire.

The grouping includes three levels of satellites - 784 in an orbit of 590 kilometers, 1,156 in a 630-kilometer orbit and 1,296 - in a 610-kilometer orbit.

Many details about the proposed Amazon grouping remain unknown, such as where the satellites will be built and when Amazon plans to put them into orbit. Amazon has not yet applied to the Federal Communications Commission (USA) for permission to serve the US market using satellites. This statement will include more details about the constellation, including information on how Amazon plans to move satellites out of orbit to maintain a safe space environment.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is also the founder of the Blue Origin space company, which is developing the reusable New Glenn rocket to launch government and commercial satellites.

Amazon received the news of applying to ITU on the same day that it became known that Bezos would remain the sole owner of Blue Origin after his divorce. In a statement dated April 4, 2019, McKinsey Bezos stated that her husband will retain sole ownership of the company and this will be reflected in the divorce agreement. Bezos will transfer McKinsey 25% of its stake in Amazon, but retain its voting right. Even after the settlement of the issue, Bezos will remain the richest man on the planet with the remainder of Amazon shares valued at $ 108 billion.

Satellite Data Exchange Service

Amazon and Lockheed Martin have announced the creation of an AWS Ground Station satellite communications service to balance the load on Amazon cloud servers while maintaining communications with satellites, especially low-orbit ones.

The proposed Amazon group, in accordance with the application submitted to the ITU, will circulate over our planet much closer than other broadband groups that are in the process of development.

OneWeb, for example, aims at an orbit of 1,200 kilometers with an initial number of satellites of 650 units.

Telesat plans to place satellites in orbits of 1,000 and 1,250 kilometers, although it is not yet clear how many of the planned 292 satellites will be located in a particular orbit, due to the fact that the target size of the constellation is 58 satellites larger than the FCC allowed for access To the market.

The proposed LeoSat constellation of 108 satellites will operate in an orbit of 1,400 kilometers altitude.

SpaceX expressed a desire to control most of its future constellation of 4,225 satellites at altitudes between 1,100 and 1,325 kilometers (although the company requested authorization of 1,584 satellites in a lower 550-kilometer orbit).

Many applications for the allocation of the frequency range never go beyond filling in the original papers. In 2016, Boeing submitted an application to the FCC for a grouping of 1,396 to 2,956 satellites, but last June admitted that the process did not move beyond plans. FCC International Bureau told SpaceNews that Boeing has withdrawn two applications over the past year.

When implemented, the Amazon system will cost billions of dollars, which is similar to the cost of the SpaceX, OneWeb, Telesat and LeoSat groups. Bezos said last year that he was already at that time selling Amazon shares for $ 1 billion to finance Blue Origin.