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Re:Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm by arwineap on Wednesday February 09, 2022 @12:13AM (#30269114)
Amazon's Project Kuiper

Behind, but it's there

Re:Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm by mabbo on Wednesday February 09, 2022 @08:51AM (#30272575)
Launching on what, exactly?

Right now they have 9 launches planned using Atlas 5. That's not going to get them a usable fleet of satellites. If they want to launch anything beyond that, Blue Origin must finish the BE-4: a rocket engine years behind schedule. (Either using them for Vulcan rockets or for the New Glenn).

From Amazon's perspective, those 9 launches are money wasted if BO doesn't come through. I'd be ecstatic if they did, but my money is on yet another delay from them.

If I had to guess, by the time Kuiper is launching enough satellites to matter, SpaceX will be doing the same thing using Starship at an order of magnitude lower cost. And I don't even think Starship will be doing real launches for years.

Re:Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm by aerospace_guy on Wednesday February 09, 2022 @01:25PM (#30276205)
Amazon can launch Kuiper satellites on any launch vehicle, not just New Glenn.
Re:Starlink lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm by mabbo on Wednesday February 09, 2022 @04:29PM (#30278773)
Sure, but who has capacity to take on any serious number of launches? And who can do it at a competitive price to make Kuiper anything but a financial disaster?

The answer is: nobody.

What made Starlink financially possible was SpaceX's lower launch costs and high capacity.