A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket is scheduled to launch 29 of Amazon’s internet satellites to orbit tonight (April 27), and you can watch it live.
ULA calls tonight’s mission Amazon Leo 6, because it will be the sixth that the company flies to help build out the Amazon Leo broadband constellation in low Earth orbit.
The network, a rival to SpaceX’s Starlink internet megaconstellation, will eventually consist of more than 3,200 satellites, if all goes to plan.
It will take more than 80 launches by a variety of rockets to finish assembling Amazon Leo, which used to be known as Project Kuiper. Just nine of these liftoffs have occurred to date. The Atlas V has flown five of them, SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 has launched three and Arianespace’s Ariane 6 rocket has launched one.
The Ariane 6’s tally will increase soon, however; it’s scheduled to launch an Amazon Leo mission from French Guiana early on Tuesday morning (April 28).
The first four Atlas V Amazon Leo missions sent 27 of the broadband satellites skyward. Amazon Leo 5, which launched on April 4, boosted that number to 29 and set a new record for the heaviest payload ever flown by an Atlas V in the process — 18 tons.
Amazon Leo 6 will likely tie that mark, as it is also launching 29 Amazon Leo satellites to the final frontier.