— A batch of Amazon satellites hitched a ride to low-Earth orbit, marking the biggest stride yet in the tech giant’s efforts to join a race to blanket the planet in connectivity beamed from space. Twenty-seven satellite took flight atop an Atlas V rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, just after 7 p.m. ET Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch kicks off the first installment for Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a plan to create a massive constellation of internet-beaming satellites. The effort is poised to compete directly with Starlink, the network offered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX that already has at least 4.6 million customers around the world. Starlink and Project Kuiper are both part of an effort to transform global internet infrastructure. The networks aim to provide access to remote corners of the world where traditional broadband, which relies on underground cables, is lacking. It’s an exceedingly complex endeavor because thousands of satellites, orbiting close to Earth and traveling more than 17,000 miles per hour (27,360 kilometers per hour), must work in tandem to seamlessly maintain connections with customers’ dishes and other ground-based infrastructure. While SpaceX has made enormous strides bringing its satellite constellation online, the financial outlook of the business is unclear because SpaceX is a privately held company. Amazon’s analysts on Wall Street, meanwhile, are apprehensive about the company’s entrance into the market. The big question is whether it’s too late for Amazon to take on SpaceX. “Kuiper is going to have a long way to go to catch up to be able to serve a significant part of the market,” Craig Moffett, senior managing director at the research firm MoffettNathanson, told CNN. “It looks like there is a very, very high probability that this will turn out to be too late for it to ever come close to being an attractive investment.” What’s at stake A Project Kuiper customer terminal, the ground equipment that will be necessary for residential users to tap into the network, is pictured in this handout image from Amazon. Amazon The first iteration of Amazon’s Kuiper service will rely on a constellation of about 3,200 satellites. Each satellite will orbit about 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth, which is slightly lower than the roughly 340-mile (550-kilometer) altitude at which SpaceX’s Starlink satellites operate. Both Kuiper and Starlink satellites will operate in a region of space called low-Earth orbit, which is dramatically closer to our planet than where traditional communications satellites operate. For example, companies that have provided Wi-Fi to remote areas or in-flight service for airlines — such as London-based Inmarsat and Carlsbad, California-based Viasat — operate satellites in geosynchronous orbit, located some 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) from the ground. In this screenshot from video, Blue Origin New Shepard lifts off in West Texas, on Monday. From Blue Origin