On April 28, Amazon launched the first batch of 27 Kuiper Internet satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S.A. These satellites are the first of 3,236 satellites that Amazon plans to send to low Earth orbit for Project Kuiper.
The 27 satellites were carried on an Atlas V rocket built by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, from the United Launch Alliance's Cape Canaveral space base at 7:00 p.m. EST. The launch, originally scheduled for April 9, was canceled due to inclement weather and postponed until today.
Under Project Kuiper, Amazon plans to launch (at least) thousands of satellites into space. Once operational and networked, it will compete directly with Musk's space exploration company SpaceX's Starlink.
On April 27 at 23:54, China successfully launched the Tianlian-2 05 satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center using a Long March-3B carrier rocket. The satellite entered its designated orbit smoothly, and the launch mission was a complete success.
TAIYUAN, April 19, China launched six satellites—Shiyan-27 01 to 06—aboard a Long March 6A rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. All satellites entered their planned orbits, marking the mission’s full success.
BEIJING, April 16, 2025 - China has successfully established the world's first three-satellite constellation in distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the Moon, according to the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.