NASA Crew-11 Arrives at Kennedy Space Center
NASA’s Crew-11 arrived at Kennedy Space Center the afternoon of July 26. The crew will launch to the International Space Station no earlier than July 31.
Amazon will launch another batch of Kuiper internet satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.The launch, designated KF-02, is scheduled for no earlier than 10:01 a.m. EDT on August 7 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.This mission marks the first flight of the Falcon 9 booster, which will land on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean.
Amazon’s Kuiper internet constellation will continue to grow thanks to yet another launch — again on a SpaceX rocket.
The mission is known as KF-02 (Kuiper Falcon 2) and is set to liftoff no earlier than 10:01 a.m. Thursday, August 7, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX has a 27-minute window to make the launch.
As the name suggests, it is the second launch of the satellites atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX recently launched a batch of the satellites back on July 16.
Amazon Kuiper SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral
Comparable to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet, the Amazon Kuiper satellite internet service promises to provide internet in “unserved and underserved communities.”
Overall, this will be the fourth launch of the satellite constellation to date. Kuiper saw its first batch launched April 28 of this year atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
The SpaceX’s Falcon 9 will deploy the satellites 289 miles above Earth, and then Amazon’s Project Kuiper team will take over from an operations center in Redmond, Washington. From there, the Amazon team will raise the satellites to an altitude of approximately 391 miles.
Amazon was founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, who also founded space company, Blue Origin. SpaceX and the Starlink satellites are products of billionaire Elon Musk. Eventually, the Amazon Kuiper satellites will eventually be launched atop Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket as well.
Amazon plans to have 3,232 of the first-generation satellites in orbit within the coming years. In contrast, SpaceX has about 8,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.
The Project Kuiper satellites are processed for launch at the new $140 million, 100,000-square-foot processing plant at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceX Falcon 9 launch in Florida to see new booster
The Falcon 9 first-stage, also known as the booster, launching this mission is seeing its first flight. This is a rare occasion, as SpaceX routinely pushes its fleet of boosters to well beyond 20 flights. Reusability keeps the costs down.
There will be no Space Coast sonic booms, as the new booster will land out on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship, which will be waiting in the Atlantic Ocean.
A few days following the launch, the new booster will arrive back at Port Canaveral for retrival by SpaceX.
Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.