Amazon outsources constellation service targets, distribution and deorbit plans to the FCC

WASHINGTON – Amazon published more details about its plan to distribute 3,236 broadband satellites, and told US telecom regulators that the constellation could start servicing in limited areas with less than one fifth of the total constellation.

Amazon's Kuiper System satellites will have a seven-year design life – less than half of a traditional geostationary communications satellite – and will be launched in five waves, according to a July 4 filing with the US Federal Communications Commission.

The first wave consists of 578 satellites that will provide internet service in two horizontal bands, one between 39 degrees north and 56 degrees north (approximately from Philadelphia north to Moscow) and another from 39 degrees south down to 56 degrees south (about from Hastings, New Zealand, to the top of Britain's South Sandwich Islands in the Atlantic). The subsequent four waves would fill coverage to the equator.

Amazon did not say when these satellites were going to start or which launch car they would use to reach orbit. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, also owns the launch company Blue Origin, whose New Glenn orbital rocket is slated for a first launch in 2021[ads1].

Amazon's Kuiper System was revealed in April through a filing with a United Nations agency called the International Telecommunications Union. That filing, first reported by Geekwire contained little information beyond the number of satellites and their intended paths.

The ITU coordinates spectrum to prevent interference between different communication systems at a global level. The FCC regulates communications in the United States, and since the United States is the Amazon license land, the agency also has the task of authorizing the launch and operation of the Kuiper system.

Markets and Infrastructure

Amazon's focus with the Kuiper system is to connect to "tens of millions of unnoticed and subservient consumers and businesses in the United States and around the world," according to archiving.

Consumer demand, but often considered the most difficult to capture with megaconstellation due to low cost, may be what Amazon considers the largest market. Amazon told the FCC that consumer demand for broadband services "far exceeds the potential capacity available to all [non-geosynchronous satellite] systems proposed to date, including the Amazon Kuiper System."

SpaceX also consumes broadband as a main focus of its Starlink constellation of up to 12,000 satellites, making OneWeb with its constellation of 650 to 2000 satellites. Both have initial satellites in orbit.

Amazon said that the Kuiper system will target transport systems, including aircraft, boats and land vehicles, and make the constellation a competitor with other proposed ground path systems such as those with Telesat and LeoSat that do not focus on consumer broadband.

To operate the complete market, Amazon said that the Kuiper system will rely on a user terminal mix consisting of flat, electronically controlled phase phases and mechanically controlled antennas. Kuiper System satellites will be equipped with Ka-band phased array antennas to form reprogrammable dot beams that relate to user terminals on the ground, Amazon said.

Amazon said it has the resources to realize the Kuiper system, including global computer infrastructure, intercontinental fiber connections and data centers. The company cited Amazon Web Services, which enabled a satellite base station in May as evidence of its experience in advanced technology development. Amazon has also mentioned its delivery-via-drone project, Amazon Prime Air, and the autonomous package vendor project Amazon Scout, but did not say or how they would match the Kuiper system.

Waste Limitations and Deorbit Plans

If a Kuiper System satellite fails, it will naturally deorbit within a maximum of 10 years, according to Amazon's projections.

The Kuiper system requires three "shells" of satellites all in the lowest range of low ground paths – 590 kilometers, 610 kilometers and 630 kilometers. Because of their proximity to the earth, Amazon predicts dead satellites that will naturally deorbit on average between five and seven years.

Should a satellite lose contact with ground stations beyond a "predetermined waiting time", it would automatically decrease itself, Amazon said. This winding process involves tracing or trapping, followed by emptying of batteries, discharging fuel lines and tanks, and ensuring that the charging circuits are "permanently turned off or melted" to avoid the risk of a surprise.

Satellites that are actively disposed of should they -Abit within one year using onboard driving, Amazon said.

Amazon said the "design goal" of the Kuiper System is to use a "non-pressurized, non-explosive fuel storage" for a chemically inert fuel. The company said it is working with the US Air Force's Combined Space Operations Center on security aspects, including constellation design and maneuvering plans. Commercial space situation awareness companies are involved in these efforts as well, Amazon said.

Amazon said it plans to launch manufacturing satellites to a height below the International Space Station and carry out system checks there before the satellites increase to the target track.

Although it may ease concerns about the safety of people in orbit, Amazon's Kuiper System can generate concerns about inter-constellation collisions. The lowest shell of the Amazon constellation would orbit only 40 kilometers above a layer of SpaceX's Starlink constellation.

In April, FCC approved SpaceX's plans to drive about 1,600 550-kilometer satellites. The Kuiper system, as foreseen, would have its lowest 784 satellites circling the earth at 590 kilometers. Another 1,296 Kuiper System satellites would orbit 20 kilometers higher at 610 kilometers, followed by the remaining 1,156 satellites again 20 kilometers higher at 630 kilometers.

OneWeb has argued for a 125 kilometer separation zone between constellations as a means of avoiding spacecraft collisions.

Amazon told the FCC that a 40 mile gap between constellations "allows potential variability in orbital station with control techniques that can exist between different satellite operators."