To catch up with the competition, Bezos plans to rapidly deploy the rest of the Kuiper constellation in the coming months and years.

Amazon’s first batch of Kuiper satellites lifted off into space on Monday, as the Jeff Bezos-owned company aims to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink in the nascent satellite broadband market. The first 27 satellites of the Kuiper program took off on top of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket just after 7 pm ET.

Project Kuiper addresses a critical global need: reliable internet access for billions who remain unconnected due to cost, geography, or infrastructure challenges.