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

Enlarge / An image of a Kuiper satellite in space. (credit: HEO Space)

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

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.