Daily Telescope: A space-based camera spys a secretive Project Kuiper satellite

Good morning. It's December 13, and today's image comes from a company that images other objects in space—HEO Space. It reveals one of the two Project Kuiper satellites currently undergoing testing in low-Earth orbit.

Project Kuiper is Amazon's answer to SpaceX's Starlink satellite Internet constellation. However, in the run-up to the October launch of the first two demonstration satellites on an Atlas V rocket, Amazon was super secretive about the satellites. It released almost no technical details or any photos. So this in-space image is the best we've got for now.

My colleague, Stephen Clark, reached out to Amazon to see if we can expect more information about Project Kuiper soon. "We did see that!" James Watkins, of Amazon, said in referencing the HEO Space image. "Very cool. Nothing to add from our side at the moment, and still no plans to release photo/renderings in the near-term."

So yeah, no dice.

Based in Australia, HEO Space flies sensors as hosted payloads on other satellites, with the goal of providing the capability to identify other satellites in space and assess their status, operation, and anomalous behavior. There sure are a lot of smart people doing smart things in space these days.

Source: HEO Space