ULA launches the second set of Kuiper satellites into orbit
ULA this morning successfully placed 27 Kuiper satellites into orbit, its Atlas-5 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
This was the second set of Kuiper satellites launched for Amazon. It now has 54 satellites in orbit, with a requirement to launch about 1,600 by July of 2026.
As this was only the second launch in 2025 for ULA, both Atlas-5 launches of Kuiper satellites, the leader board in the 2025 launch race remains unchanged.
77 SpaceX
35 China
8 Rocket Lab
7 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 77 to 58.
ULA had predicted it would do 20 launches in 2025. It appears the company will not only not reach that goal, it will not do so by a lot.
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ULA this morning successfully placed 27 Kuiper satellites into orbit, its Atlas-5 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
This was the second set of Kuiper satellites launched for Amazon. It now has 54 satellites in orbit, with a requirement to launch about 1,600 by July of 2026.
As this was only the second launch in 2025 for ULA, both Atlas-5 launches of Kuiper satellites, the leader board in the 2025 launch race remains unchanged.
77 SpaceX
35 China
8 Rocket Lab
7 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 77 to 58.
ULA had predicted it would do 20 launches in 2025. It appears the company will not only not reach that goal, it will not do so by a lot.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
”This was the second set of Kuiper satellites launched for Amazon. It now has 54 satellites in orbit…”
With this launch Kuiper passes Galileo (27 satellites), O3b (28 sats), GPS (32 active sats), Orbcomm (36 sats), Eutelsat (37 sats), Guowang (37 operational sats), Intelsat (45 sats), SES (49 sats), and Compass (52 sats) to become the 8th largest satellite constellation in the world behind Starlink (7000+ sats), OneWeb (654 sats), SuperDove (230+ sats), Starshield (185 sats), Lemur (110 sats), Thousand Sails (90 sats), and Iridium (82 sats).
Kuiper will almost certainly be third or fourth in the world by the end of the year depending on how fast the Chinese launch their Thousand Sails constellation. If I remember right Kuiper can start service with 650 satellites, so that will probably happen sometime next year unless they botch the ground station rollout like OneWeb did. Because of their ground station issues, OneWeb won’t really be able to rollout service until the end of next year. Kuiper has a good chance to pass them right by.