Not the first ever Amazon sats but Arianespace's first batch of 32 of Amazon's LEO satellites (formerly called the Kuiper constellation). The reason this gets a story and not just mention is that this will be the first launch of what they're calling the Ariane 64, which is an Ariane 6 with four strap on solid rocket boosters.
The Ariane 6 is fairly well-established for a new launch vehicle, with five launches, including its debut flight in July 2024. All of the launches were considered a success, although the first flight failed to relight the upper stage in order to make a controlled reentry. I'm guessing declaring it a success was the payload achieved the desired orbit. Given that they had a full year instead of roughly half a year (first launch in July '24), Arianespace went from one/year to four launches last year and has set the goal to eight for this year.
Arianespace has sold 18 Ariane 6 launches to Amazon; this mission, called VA267, will be the first of them. The launch has a preliminary date of NET February 12th, three weeks from yesterday, January 15, with no time assigned. The launch will be from Arianespace's launch facility in French Guiana.
Artist's rendering of Ariane 64 in operation. Image credit: Arianespace
VA267 will be the first flight of Ariane 6 in its full-power Ariane 64 configuration, capable of carrying payloads of more than 20 metric tons to orbit. The 32 Amazon Leo satellites will be accommodated under a 20-meter-long fairing and delivered by the Ariane 64 rocket to a Low Earth Orbit.
The Arianespace website adds:
The VA267 launch at a glance:
- 359th launch by Arianespace, 1st Arianespace launch in 2026
- 6th Ariane 6 launch and 1st launch of Ariane 64, its most powerful configuration, and 1st use of Ariane 6's long fairing configuration
- 1st Arianespace launch for Amazon Leo, within a series of 18
- 1st Ariane 6 launch for a commercial customer
I wonder who at Amazon can justify using ArianeSpace instead of SpaceX, costwise that is.
ReplyDeleteGood for ArianeSpace. Still a slow pace, still expensive as all get out, but they're trying (being French, they're very very trying...)
Going from memory, which always means some risk, Amazon originally was refusing to put any missions on SpaceX. Stockholders said, "WTF??" None of the rockets they wanted to launch on had actually flown ONCE, let alone demonstrated any kind of launch cadence. Eventually, they relented and signed SpaceX in December of '23.
DeleteHard to justify to your stockholders and governing board that you're wasting 10 times the money per launch and that the license for your constellations is going to expire because you're not launching your constellation because all the money you've paid for launches (at 10x the SpaceX price) is for launchers that aren't launching.
DeleteBrilliant.
This is right up there with Boeing moving corporate headquarters to Chicago...
Not one mention of the Dr Evil lookalike in the text nor the links.
ReplyDeletePitching a fit in the space bidness is expensive. But rich enough to afford it.
After his hissy fits, Elon probably told him, No.
I ask you, if SpaceX hadn't lofted Starlink, would there ever have been a Kuiper constellation?
"Not one mention of the Dr Evil lookalike in the text nor the links. "
DeleteI have no idea who or what you're referring to. Can you be more specific? Like which link, where the picture is or anything?
Amazon LEO (Kuipier) is required by FCC to have 50% of their 3,200 satellites deployed by July 2026. Doable (by SpaceX production and launch) but the Amazon team / pace does not seem up to it. Likey get an extension. Still, would love to see them actually do it (or even just try) and additionally give some competition to SpaceX above what the Viasat Marketing department dreams of.
ReplyDelete