Amazon Reveals Project Kuiper Commercial Satellite Terminals

Amazon has unveiled its Project Kuiper user satellite antennas ahead of its satellite prototype launch.

Standard Model

The standard terminal designed for small businesses and residential customers has a 28-centimeter square shape (similar to an LP record cover, but thicker) and weighs under 2.3 kilograms excluding the mounting bracket. It can achieve speeds of up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps) and has a production cost of less than $400.

Ultra Compact Model

The standard terminal is designed for customers on the go. Similar in size to their Kindle e-book reader and weighing under half a kilogram, its set to be the more cost-effective for customers. This ultra-compact terminal would be capable of delivering speeds up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps).

High End Model

The high end terminal is designed for enterprise and government customers, with its larger size, measuring 48 centimeters by 76 centimeters, is set to provide speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps).

Amazon has yet to reveal the prices of the Ultra Compact and High End Models or the pricing for the Project Kuiper service.

Amazon's Project Kuiper terminals are powered by Prometheus, a baseband chip designed by Amazon. The chip's capabilities enable the Project Kuiper satellites to handle traffic from thousands of customers simultaneously. Each Project Kuiper spacecraft will be able to process up to 1 terabit per second of traffic by incorporating this chip. Amazon says "designing the chips in-house enabled Amazon to acquire them at one-tenth what they would cost on the market"

Amazon is preparing to launch the first two prototypes for its constellation in "early May" on United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket's inaugural flight and anticipate providing beta services to "large customers" in specific regions in 2024.

Amazon aims to manufacture 3-5 satellites daily, as it races to meet regulatory requirements to have half of its proposed constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) by mid-2026.

To deploy these satellites, Amazon has secured up to 92 launches with ULA, Arianespace, and Blue Origin, which was announced in April 2021 during the 37th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.