Atlas V’s amazon satellites were launched to test internet services

United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket is the newest entrant into the increasingly crowded market for space-based broadband. It took off into the orbit on Friday.

The newest entrant into the increasingly crowded market for space-based broadband, which is currently dominated by SpaceX, was United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, which lifted off on Friday and placed an additional pair of experimental internet satellites into orbit for Amazon's Kuiper program. At 2:06 PM EDT, the 196-foot-tall Atlas V rocket blasted off from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the state of Florida, arcing away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean thanks to the faultless operation of its Russian-built RD-180 first-stage engine.

After lifting the craft out of the dense lower atmosphere, the rocket's first stage naturally disintegrated, and the Centaur upper stage took over. At Amazon's request, ULA abruptly stopped providing real-time coverage within minutes of stage separation, breaking with standard procedure for commercial, unclassified flights. However, the rocket manufacturer did report that the Kuipersat 1 and 2 prototypes were successfully deployed roughly 50 minutes after launch.

In any case, Amazon Kuiper experts planned to keep an eye on the satellites' solar panel deployment and make sure everything was operating smoothly inside. They also intended to test the networking capabilities of the program by transmitting and receiving data from satellites and ground-based "gateway" stations linked to the internet.