Amazon: The test satellites will lower their orbital altitudes over the next several months from roughly 475 kilometers (295 miles) above Earth to 217 km, at which point the forces of Earth s atmosphere will naturally drag them into a fiery demise.
Demand for launches has soared, driven mainly by plans from countries and companies like Amazon to put thousands of internet satellites in space. But supply to the West has dropped, with Europe s sovereign space access held up by rocket development delays and Russia s rocket program being isolated by the West over the Ukraine war. Bigger U.S. rockets, such as SpaceX s Starship and Blue Origin s New Glenn, are months or years from reaching orbit.
Amazon Project Kuiper: Amazon aims to launch over 3,000 satellites into low-Earth orbit to provide global broadband internet coverage and compete directly with Elon Musk s SpaceX, whose Starlink network is farther ahead in the market for providing internet from space.