![]() Project Kuiper will begin mass-producing the satellites later this year and beta testing with commercial customers in 2024, Amazon said earlier this year. Īmazon has already paid about $1.7 billion to the three launch providers in the project, including $585 million to Blue Origin directly, the lawsuit states, adding that the company has not yet launched a prototype of its Kuiper satellite into orbit. Amazon's largest acquisition is its $13.7 billion deal to buy Whole Foods in 2017. That makes it a rival to Musk's Starlink.Īsked about the lawsuit, an Amazon spokesperson said in an email to Reuters: "The claims in this lawsuit are completely without merit, and we look forward to showing that through the legal process."Ĭleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, a multi-employer fund, said in its filing that the launch contracts were the second-largest capital expenditure in Amazon's history at the time. Blue Origin has recently declined to provide a new target date, as Sheetz noted.Amazon's Project Kuiper is a planned network of over 3,000 satellites designed to beam broadband internet to remote regions. Its debut was originally targeted for 2020, but delays in the BE-4's development have pushed that timeline to the right repeatedly. New Glenn, the other big rocket that the BE-4 will power, also has yet to fly. We should learn more soon: Bruno is scheduled to talk to reporters about Vulcan Centaur on Thursday (July 13). Late last month, the company said it would destack the first Vulcan Centaur and send the upper stage back to its factory in Alabama for modifications. It's unclear when the new rocket will get off the ground. But that target date was pushed back after a Centaur upper stage exploded during testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center on March 29. The heavy lifter was supposed to debut in early May, on a mission that will send the private Peregrine lander toward the moon. ULA has been dealing with issues of its own on Vulcan Centaur. Powerful Delta IV Heavy rocket launches US spy satellite on final flight from California ![]() United Launch Alliance's 1st Vulcan Centaur rocket arrives in Florida for debut flight Stack it up! ULA assembles 1st Vulcan Centaur rocket ahead of debut launch (photos) That's why we do them on every single serial number that comes off the line," Bruno said in another Tuesday tweet. ![]() (There are other steps along this path as well, including "hot fire" tests of fully integrated engines on the launch pad.) ![]() The engine that failed on June 30 was undergoing an "acceptance test" (APT), which looks for issues with individual units before flight. The BE-4 has already been qualified for flight, meaning its overall design is sound, ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno stressed via Twitter on Tuesday. And the latter company - a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin - doesn't seem to view it as a major problem at the moment. Investigators have already determined the proximate cause of the anomaly "and are working on remedial actions," the statement added.īlue Origin added that it immediately made ULA aware of the incident. "No personnel were injured, and we are currently assessing root cause," Blue Origin representatives said, according to Sheetz. Blue Origin successfully completed its third human spaceflight on Saturday, December 11, the first with six astronauts on board.
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