Amazon expanded the space Internet by launching 32 Amazon Leo satellites via the Ariane 6 rocket at 4:57 a.m. EDT on Thursday.
The launch took place successfully from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America, as reported by AFP.
The historic launch is related to the Amazon Leo project, formerly known as Project Kuiper. As part of this project, the giant American company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos sent the Internet constellation into space, with the aim of competing with Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband mega-constellation.
Amazon Leo will eventually consist of about 3,200 satellites, while Starlink is at the forefront of this race, powered by more than 10,000 spacecraft.
This was the second launch of Ariane 6, tasked with deploying 32 satellites for Project Kuiper, the low Earth orbit (LEO) internet constellation owned by Amazon.
The mission also represented the second flight of the Ariane 64 variant, the rocket’s most powerful configuration, with four solid rocket boosters.
Under the company’s plan, 3,200 satellites will be launched into space over the course of more than 80 launches carried out by various rockets, such as Ariane 6, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur.
Only ten missions have launched so far, with the most recent taking place on April 27, when Atlas V launched 29 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit.
The responsibility of the mission falls to the French company Arianespace. The company is tasked with 18 launches for Amazon 18.
