23 June 2025 year Fr. 10:54 (UTC) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, using a launch vehicle «Atlas in 551» a launch was made 27 US spacecraft «Project Kuiper (The-02)».
«Project Kuiper (The-02)» – This is a mega-constellation of satellites in a low Earth orbit, which will provide broadband online access, analogue of the American Starlink system. To manage this constellation will be Kuiper Systems LLC, Amazon subsidiary. Satellites are planned to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers: at a height 590 km, 610 km and 630 km. The company has invested over 10 billions of dollars in this project.
«Project Kuiper» will become a direct competitor Starlink from SpaceX, which has already brought to orbit beyond 7 000 satellites and serves about 4,5 a million customers in more than 100 countries. Amazon concluded contracts on 92 Running with different providers, In particular, United Launch Alliance, Arianespace і Blue Origin, To deploy his satellite group.
Atlas V - a one -time two -stage starting system of the ATLAS missiles family, Originally developed by Lockheed Martin, And now used United Launch Alliance (ULA), by a joint venture Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The Starozhil rocket in time in the US. Загальна висота ракети з 5-метровим обтічником становить близько 62,5 city, діаметр — 3.8 city. Стандартні розміри обтічника корисного навантаження становлять 4 or 5 метрів у діаметрі та різної довжини. Маса ракети — 590 tons.
Разом з першою місією (KA‑01), що відбулася 28 April 2025 (27 satellites), загальна кількість запущених супутників проекту Kuiper досягла 54.
According to the CCS