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Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said Thursday that production launches of its Project Kuiper satellites will be delayed and begin in the fourth quarter, with beta testing next year.
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Amazon executive Steve Metayer made the remarks at an event opening Amazon’s satellite production facility in Seattle.
Production of the Kuiper satellite, designed to compete with SpaceX’s (SPACE) StarLink satellite internet service, was originally scheduled to begin in the first half of 2024.
Despite the competition between Amazon and SpaceX, Amazon in December signed a contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to deploy its Kuiper satellite using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Amazon also has agreements with Arianespace, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing (BA) and Lockheed Martin (LMT), to provide heavy-lift launch services for the Kuiper project.
Separately, in December last year, Amazon said it successfully completed testing of an optical mesh network of laser links between Project Kuiper satellites in low-Earth orbit. In November, Amazon said its first test mission achieved a 100% success rate.
Amazon launched two prototype satellites in October on its first test mission called “Protoflight.”
In 2020, Amazon received FCC approval to build and deploy a satellite network worth $10B to provide high-speed Internet services to low-density areas.
Amazon hopes to launch about 3,200 satellites into low-Earth orbit and provide broadband to millions of people around the world.
(This story has been updated to change the first paragraph to indicate that the satellite’s production launch has been delayed.)
