The creator of the massive online retailer Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is increasing his interest in space. He launched two test satellites for his Project Kuiper broadband mega-constellation earlier this week. In order to provide internet connections to every country in the world, Bezos plans to launch more than 3,200 spacecraft over the next five years.

Elon Musk’s Starlink, which currently provides satellite internet in numerous nations, will be challenged by him, he says.

The required technology will be tested by the two tiny satellites KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, which will launch on Friday. They were launched by an Atlas-5 rocket into a 500km-high (310 miles) orbit.

The flight was taken off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

 In 2018, Amazon started working on the $10 billion (£8 billion) Project Kuiper.

The goal is to enter the quickly expanding market for internet connections that are bounced around the sky and have low latency (minimum delay), as opposed to connections made through fibre optic cables on the ground.

The industry leader with more than 4,800 operational spacecraft in orbit is Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The UK-based Eutelsat-OneWeb has also established a network of 620 satellites, but other US firms are also submitting plans, and similar initiatives have been announced in China, the EU, Canada, and other countries.

Bezos wants to launch his network quickly.

To utilise the required radio frequencies, Amazon has obtained a licence from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), however the terms of this licence require that at least half of the Kuiper system be in orbit by July 2026 and that the full roll-out be finished by July 2029.

Amazon has contracts with rocket firms in place for roughly 100 flights, so this will require a ferocious launch campaign.

The fact that the majority of these missions are scheduled for vehicles that have not yet entered service, however, could prove to be a challenge because it is normal for new rocket systems to malfunction during their initial launches.

In the event that this occurs, it might seriously slow down Amazon’s ability to set up and make Kuiper operational.

The Kuiper satellites will be closely examined for any potential astronomical interference, just like other mega-constellation systems. There is a great deal of worry that the increasing number of spacecraft in orbit may negatively affect telescopic astronomical observations of the Universe.

When their surfaces reflect the rising and setting Sun, spacecraft can seem as very bright, trailing objects if they are not appropriately designed.

Astronomers just this week remarked on the glare coming from the experimental BlueWalker-3 communications satellite.

A 64 square metre (690 square foot) antenna on this spacecraft allows it to make direct phone calls from orbit. According to the researchers, BlueWalker-3 might occasionally be among the ten brightest objects in the entire sky.

Concerns about the traffic control of huge populations of satellites are in addition to those about interference. In crowded space, numerous collisions would produce debris that would subsequently limit what anyone can do in orbit.

Bezos is working on a number of space initiatives, including Kuiper. The Amazon mogul also owns a business called Blue Origin, which has begun to launch “tourists” into space aboard the New Shepard rocket and capsule system.

In addition, Blue Origin is developing plans for a much larger vehicle called New Glenn, an astronaut landing ship for the Moon, and an Earth orbital commercial space station.

(Adapted from BBC.com)