Linkedin This file photo shows the rocket fairing containing the satellites for Project Kuiper's first launch in April. The satellites are stacked and encapsulated inside the fairing at Amazon's satellite processing facility at Kennedy Space Center, adjacent to Cape Canaveral, before the fairing is hoisted atop the rocket that will launch them into space. File photo courtesy of Amazon SpaceX launched Amazon’s third batch of Project Kuiper satellites at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, adding 24 satellites to Kuiper’s constellation. Amazon’s first two batches of broadband internet satellites were launched aboard United Launch Alliance Atlas rockets on April 28 and June 23. After the latest launch, there are now 78 Project Kuiper satellites orbiting Earth. Wednesday marked the first time Amazon has used SpaceX to launch Project Kuiper satellites aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, hence the mission name of KF-01. SpaceX offers a competing broadband satellite service, Starlink. “Congrats to the amazing Amazon Project Kuiper team on another successful launch, and a big thanks to SpaceX for the ride to space,” Panos Panay, senior vice president of devices and services for Amazon, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Pumped to have another batch of Kuiper satellites heading into orbit!” Falcon 9 deployed the satellites 289 miles above Earth, at which point the Kuiper team took over command of the satellites from its mission operations center in Redmond, Amazon noted in a post on its website. “From there, we began to perform initial satellite health checks as we prepare to raise the satellites to their assigned altitude of 392 miles (630 km), where they will be fully commissioned as part of our operational satellite constellation,” the company said.