Amazon said on Monday it had secured nine satellite launch vehicles from United Launch Alliance (ULA) to support the initial deployment of its broadband Internet initiative, Project Kuiper.

Atlas V launch vehicles from ULA, a joint rocket venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is the first of many vehicles which will be used to deploy Amazon’s satellite constellation to orbit.

Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a planned network of over 3,000 satellites that will provide high-speed Internet from space, faces stiff competition from the Starlink network by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“Atlas V is a highly reliable launch vehicle, and provides the right level of performance, capacity and dependability we need to begin our large-scale deployment,” the e-commerce giant said.

Last year, Amazon said it will invest more than $10 billion (roughly Rs. 75,000 crores) to build a network of 3,236 satellites that will provide high-speed broadband Internet services to people around the world who lack such access.

There are now more than 500 people working on the Project Kuiper programme at Amazon, the company said.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

Is OnePlus 9R old wine in a new bottle — or something more? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Later (starting at 23:00), we talk about the new OnePlus Watch. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.