(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc said on Monday it had secured nine satellite launch vehicles from United Launch Alliance (ULA) to support its space internet initiative, Project Kuiper.
Atlas V launch vehicles from ULA, a joint rocket venture between Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp, 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 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 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.
(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
