KF-01: SpaceX Launches 3rd Batch Of Amazon's Project Kuiper Satellites

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 24 satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper internet constellation, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on July 16, at 0630 UTC, on the KF-01 (or Kuiper Falcon 1) mission.

The Falcon 9's brand new first-stage booster B1096 landed back as scheduled on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It was the first launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. That's a rarity for the company known for its rocket reuse; one of its Falcon 9 boosters has a whopping 29 launches under its belt.

The Falcon 9 rocket's second stage continued skywards and deployed the 24 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), 56 minutes after liftoff at an altitude of ~465 kilometers(km) above Earth. The Kuiper craft will later raise their orbits to their final altitude of 630 km.

KF-01 marks the third launch of Project Kuiper satellites and brings the total number of Kuiper satellites in orbit to 78. The first two Kuiper liftoffs were performed by United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, in April and June of this year.

Project Kuiper is Amazon's version of Starlink, SpaceX's popular broadband megaconstellation. Kuiper will eventually consist of more than 3,200 satellites, which will be lofted on more than 80 launches over the coming years. Starlink network, which is already up and running, consists of nearly 8,000 satellites and counting.

KF-01 comes on the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch, the famous NASA mission that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin down on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.