Amazon introduced in the present day they’ve purchased 3 Falcon 9 launches to ship their Venture Kuiper web satellites to low Earth orbit in mid-2025.
This wouldn’t be the primary time SpaceX has launched a competitor satellite tv for pc as they’ve now launched 4 occasions for one in all their different rivals, OneWeb, with a complete of 136 satellites delivered to orbit.
Amazon lately made the choice to maneuver up the launch of their first Venture Kuiper satellites from United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket which has confronted quite a few delays to an Atlas V that launched on October sixth.
The addition of the three Falcon 9 launches will assist Amazon to deploy their satellites in a extra well timed method in case of delays with the opposite rockets they’ve contracted to launch with.

The three different rockets at the moment contracted to fly Venture Kuiper, not pictured right here is the Atlas V.
They at the moment have 38 launches on the ULA Vulcan rocket (presumably 37 with the transfer to the Atlas V), 18 launches on the Arianespace Ariane 6 rocket, and 12 launches on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and none of these rockets are at the moment flying. The Vulcan and Ariane 6 have each undergone their static hearth assessments, and the Vulcan is scheduled for its maiden flight on December twenty fourth, whereas the Ariane 6 isn’t any sooner than June 2024. Blue Origin’s New Glenn is predicted to launch by the tip of 2024.
Amazon didn’t reveal the price of the contract or the place the launches would happen from, however the price of a Falcon 9 launch is round $67 million, and they might probably launch from Florida.
The present plans for the Venture Kuiper constellation requires 3,236 satellites to be deployed, with full-scale deployment to start within the first half of 2024.
Do you assume this would be the final time Amazon contracts SpaceX or do you assume there might be delays with different rockets inflicting Amazon to purchase extra launches with SpaceX?
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