Crunch time—we’ll soon find out if Amazon’s launch providers are up to the job
For the second time in two months, United Launch Alliance sent a batch of 27 broadband Internet satellites into orbit for Amazon on Monday morning.
Just like the last flight on April 28, an Atlas V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and delivered Amazon's satellites into an on-target orbit roughly 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth. This was the second launch of a full load of operational satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper, a network envisioned to become a competitor to SpaceX's Starlink.
The Atlas V launched at 6:54 am EDT (10:54 UTC) on Monday, a week after ULA scrubbed the mission's first countdown to address a problem with the rocket's Russian-made RD-180 main engine. With that issue resolved, ULA's launch team gave a "go" for Monday morning's sunrise liftoff.