earlier in the year. When fully operational, Vulcan Centaur promises to lift up to 27.2 metric tons to low Earth orbit and 6.5 metric tons to geosynchronous orbit.Similar to SpaceX’s Starlink, Amazon’s upcoming Project Kuiper aims to provide fast and affordable broadband internet access to regions around the world. The upcoming mission involving prototypes named Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2 aims to test these satellites in space.
This marks the second time that Amazon has had to switch rocket platforms. The company initially aimed to deploy the prototypes using ABL Space Systems’ RS1 rocket. Following multiple developmental hitches and ain January, Amazon turned to ULA, targeting an early 2023 lift-off. A large explosion during a test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama this past March thwarted those plans.