We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#1

Post by pseudolus » Sat, May 03, 2025, 9:37 AM UTC

We know a little more about Amazon's satellites
arstechnica.com

Re: We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#2

Post by 9dev » Sat, May 03, 2025, 10:12 AM UTC

The video of the satellite release looks really eerie; it’s got something biological to it, like an insect releasing its pods.

Re: We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#3

Post by perihelions » Sat, May 03, 2025, 10:23 AM UTC

The sibling story has further details,

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/a-rocket-launch-monday... ("A rocket launch Monday night may finally jump-start Amazon’s answer to Starlink")

Re: We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#4

Post by croes » Sat, May 03, 2025, 10:55 AM UTC

So more satellites to block the view for astronomers.

Re: We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#5

Post by ks2048 » Sat, May 03, 2025, 10:58 AM UTC

perihelions wrote: post #3

The sibling story has further details, https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/a-rocket-launch-monday... ( "A rocket launch Monday night may finally jump-start Amazon’s answer to Starlink" )

Interesting bit towards the end: they need the FCC to extend their “network authorization”. And the FCC is of course now headed by a Musk/Trump ally.

Re: We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#6

Post by ks2048 » Sat, May 03, 2025, 11:02 AM UTC

I wonder how competition will play out against StarLink. People just choose which billionaire they like better?

Re: We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#7

Post by 190eH169ps » Sat, May 03, 2025, 11:13 AM UTC

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Re: We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#8

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel » Sat, May 03, 2025, 11:15 AM UTC

I wonder what "earth observation" opportunities there would be with such megaconstellations, from simply having a camera with a telephoto lens pointed down to a giant, sky-spanning Synthetic Aperture Radar utilizing multiple satellites.

Anything like that would explain the secrecy...

Re: We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#9

Post by greatgib » Sat, May 03, 2025, 11:18 AM UTC

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Re: We know a little more about Amazon's satellites

#10

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel » Sat, May 03, 2025, 11:18 AM UTC

croes wrote: post #4

So more satellites to block the view for astronomers.

Progress tends to have downsides. Highways and rail tracks destroy the environment and make areas hard to cross, but I think most people would acknowledge that on balance, having them them is a good thing.

In this case, the obvious solution would be to provide a small number of orbital observatories to the astronomy community for free or with heavily subsidized pricing.