Miami, US, June 16 (EFE). – The launch of 27 Amazon satellites was postponed on Monday, just two hours before liftoff, due to a technical problem in the propulsion engine.
“The launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 carrying Amazon’s second Project Kuiper mission, Kuiper 2, is delayed due to an engineering observation of an elevated purge temperature within the booster engine,” ULA, the responsible company, wrote on X.
“The team will evaluate the hardware, and we will release a new launch date when available,” the statement added.
ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno also pointed out in Bluesky that the problem was a “possible issue with a GN2 purge line.”
“We will need to stand down for today, We’ll sort it and be back,” Bruno added.
The Kuiper 2 mission was scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:25 p.m. local time.
Monday was Amazon’s Project Kuiper’s second broadband satellite deployment, which aims to deliver high-speed internet globally and compete with similar services like Starlink.
The new satellites were to join the first 27, deployed on April 28 during the first launch.
The tech giant plans to form a constellation of more than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit (at an altitude of 2,000 kilometers or less), which will provide high-speed internet from space.
To achieve this, it plans to carry out more than 80 launches through agreements with Arianespace, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and ULA. EFE
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