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LiveScience
LiveScience
Keumars Afifi-Sabet

Project Kuiper: Amazon's answer to SpaceX's Starlink passes 'crucial' test

Animated aerial view of the earth showing satellite data connections as yellow lines around the planet.

Amazon's upcoming satellite broadband network, dubbed "Project Kuiper," just passed a key test test that paves the way for a 2024 launch. 

Similar to SpaceX's Starlink, Project Kuiper is Amazon's plan to provide high-speed internet by launching and connecting 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The firm launched two prototype satellites in October and began testing the systems required for the network to operate. One key test was validating the optical inter-satellite link (OISL) technology, which uses infrared lasers to send data between the spacecraft. 

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