A Project Kuiper engineer sets up a prototype antenna for testing.
Amazon
Amazon surpassed a critical milestone in the development of the hardware needed for its planned Project Kuiper satellite internet network, the company announced Wednesday.
E-commerce and technology giant Jeff Bezos said his Kuiper team has completed the initial development of the antenna that will be housed in its “low-cost customer terminal,” which will connect users to the network. Amazon. The Kuiper Project represents Amazon’s plan to launch 3,236 Internet satellites into low Earth orbit, a system that would compete with SpaceX’s Starlink network.
Amazon said it has been testing the terrain of the Kuiper antenna “in various environments,” including “4K quality video transmission from a geostationary satellite (GEO).” Geostationary satellites are usually in orbit about 35,000 kilometers from Earth, which Amazon noted is “about 50 times farther” than the predicted orbit for Kuiper satellites about 600 kilometers.
“Our prototype already offers speeds of up to 400 Mbps and performance will continue to improve in future iterations,” the company wrote in a blog post.
A diagram of the Project Kuiper antenna for your customer terminals.
Amazon
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