Amazon.com said on Thursday its two prototype satellites for its planned Kuiper internet network have been operating successfully, with the project on track to start mass production in the first half of 2024. The Kuiper internet network will compete against billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink, which is the world's largest satellite operator. The company said it had achieved a 100% success rate within the first 30 days of the satellites' launch. The company said it had successfully used the prototype satellites for two-way video calls and streaming a high-definition film on Prime Video. Early partners like Vodafone and Verizon will be the first telecom firms to beta test the service in the second half of next year. "We still have a lot of hard work ahead, and scaling for mass production won't be easy," Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, said. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission, however, requires Amazon to deploy half of its more than 3,000-planned satellite constellation by 2026. Amazon used a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket to launch the satellites in the first week of October. Rival Starlink uses its own in-house SpaceX rockets.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru and Joey Roulette in New York; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
