This is excellent news for Arianespace, which is seeing its order book fill up thanks to the ambitions of Amazon. The European rocket Ariane 6 will carry out 18 launches to put Jeff Bezos’ company satellites into low Earth orbit.
Amazon wants to put 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit
Amazon is accelerating the deployment of its constellation intended to provide a high-speed Internet solution. The American giant has just signed three major contracts with United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Blue Origin. Three space companies that will be responsible for launching on behalf of American society. It’s quite simply the biggest space commercial contract ever. In total, Amazon has ordered 83 launches from these three companies.
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In detail, Amazon has planned 18 launches with the new European rocket Ariane 6, 12 launches with the New Glenn rocket from Blue Origin, with an option for 15 additional launches and 38 launches with the Vulcan rocket from the United Launch Alliance. As you can see, American society did not order from SpaceX, its biggest competitor in the space sector. With the Kuiper project, Amazon wants to build a constellation of 3,236 satellites.
Good news for Europe and Arianespace
When the project was launched two years ago, Dave Limp, senior VP at Amazon, explained in a press release that “We’ve heard so many stories lately about people who are unable to do their jobs or complete their education because they don’t have reliable internet at home. There are still too many places where broadband access is unreliable or does not exist at all. Kuiper will change that”. On paper, the Kuiper project is exactly the same as Starlinkthe SpaceX constellation (4 years late).
The agreements that have just been concluded reflect Amazon’s commitment to the Kuiper project. In reality, it is an extremely important agreement, with very positive effects for the space industry in the United States but also in Europe, in particular for Arianespace. The American company did not want to talk about the cost of this operation, but experts believe that the company will pay at least 10 billion euros for these 83 launches.
Nevertheless, the Kuiper project will have a hard time catching up with Starlink because Amazon does not have its own rocket and no one can compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in terms of price and launch rate. The competition that will arise between Arianespace, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance should be beneficial to the space industry.