CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – The most powerful version of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket sits poised for liftoff from Florida’s Space Coast on Thursday morning evening Sept. 25 ready to blast the third batch of Amazons Kuiper broadband constellation of commercial internet comsats to orbit by ULA – setting up a new system for direct head-to-head competition with the already well-established SpaceX Starlink satellite system.
The Atlas V 551 rocket is targeting liftoff from Space Launch Complex-41 at 8:09 a.m. EDT, on Sept. 25 of the Kuiper-3 mission delivering another batch of 27 operational Amazon Kuiper commercial comsats to orbit – thereby fortifying the growing Kuiper orbital constellation of broadband internet satellites.
Kuiper-3 marks the third of many full-scale launches in service of Amazon’s Project Kuiper under contract to ULA
With this 3rd Atlas V delivery ULA will have launched a total of 81 Kuiper internet satellites to LEO
SpaceX is also launching Kuiper internet Sats to LEO under a separate contract with Amazon
With a combined total of 47 launches between ULA’s Atlas and Vulcan vehicles, ULA is launching the majority of Amazon’s initial satellite constellation.
Enjoy our prelaunch photos from the Space UpClose team of Ken Kremer and Jean Wright taken today during media remote camera setup at pad 41
The Atlas V will launch in its most powerful 551 configuration known as “The Bruiser” – spewing over 2.5 million pounds of liftoff thrust from the first stage powered by a dual nozzle RD-180 engine and 5 strap on solid rocket boosters SRBs.
The Atlas V will launch on a northeasterly trajectory up the US East Coast
The Kuiper constellation will eventually comprise over 3200 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).
The Kuiper satellites will be launched across 98 orbital planes at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km in altitude.
The 27 Kuiper satellites will be deployed at an altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth.
The Amazon-built Kuiper spacecraft are encapsulated in a 17.7-ft (5.4-m) diameter medium payload fairing. The PLF is a sandwich composite structure made with a vented aluminum-honeycomb core and graphite-epoxy face sheets. The bisector (two-piece shell) PLF encapsulates both the Centaur and the satellites.
The Atlas V vehicle height with the 5-meter medium PLF is approximately 205 ft (62.5 m).
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