Amazon.com Inc. 's first satellite was launched into orbit, moving the e-commerce company one step closer to a satellite Internet business that it hopes will compete with SpaceX and other rivals.
A rocket carrying two prototype Amazon satellites blasted off from a launch pad in Florida on Friday afternoon, according to the live stream. The tech giant hopes the mission will demonstrate how the two satellites perform in space while testing other systems.
Amazon unveiled plans for a satellite network called Project Kuiper in 2019 and said it would invest $10 billion. The company has received permission from U.S. regulators to gradually deploy more than 3,200 satellites. Like other low-orbit satellite network operators, Kuiper's goal is to sell high-speed, low-latency broadband services to subscribers.
Its main competitor is Starlink, SpaceX's satellite Internet service. SpaceX has aggressively built satellites for Starlink and launched them on some of the company's reusable rockets, with about 4,800 satellites in orbit so far.
The flight aboard an Amazon satellite began around 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, The Launch will be conducted by United Launch Alliance LLC, a joint venture of Boeing Co. (BA) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT).