as their first satellites are activated in orbit. Courtesy Amazon United Launch Alliance is planning to launch the second batch of internet-broadband satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper aboard a ULA Atlas V 551 rocket on June 13 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, pending range approval, ULA said Thursday. The second batch of satellites will become part of an initial satellite constellation of 3,232 Kuiper satellites over the next few years. The mission, dubbed KA-02 for Kuiper Atlas 2, is scheduled for 2:29 p.m. EDT, opening a 30-minute window for launch from Space Launch Complex 41. Project Kuiper, which makes its satellites in Kirkland and has its headquarters and R & D in Redmond, saw its first batch of 27 satellites successfully launched into orbit April 28 aboard a ULA Atlas V rocket. That was the first of more than 80 launches Project Kuiper has secured to deploy its initial constellation, according to a Project Kuiper news post May 9. The next mission also will send 27 satellites into orbit, Amazon said today. Once ULA dispenses the satellites into orbit, Project Kuiper’s team of flight controllers takes over the mission from its Mission Operations Center in Redmond. The first satellites were deployed about 280 miles above Earth. After the satellites are made on the Eastside, they are readied for launch at Project Kuiper’s dedicated satellite processing facility at Kennedy Space Center, adjacent to Cape Canaveral. The process involves encapsulating the satellites inside the rocket fairing, with the fairing later transported several miles to ULA’s vertical-integration facility, where the fairing is hoisted atop the rocket, according to Amazon. The first 27 satellites were stacked in three tiers of nine satellites each inside the rocket before they were deployed into space. Other launch providers for Project Kuiper include Arianespace, Blue Origin, and Space X. Facebook