Flights are scheduled for mid-2025; Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk’s companies will compete to provide satellite internet
A Amazon announced on Friday (1st.Dec.2023) the hiring of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company, for 3 rocket launches. The goal is to send internet satellites into space. The trips, which will be carried out on the Falcon 9 spacecraft, should start in mid-2025.
O Kuiper ProjectAmazon’s broadband service, offers internet via satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), a model similar to that of Starlinkalso by Elon Musk.
Although Musk and Jeff Bezos, owners of the companies involved, are direct competitors, Amazon sees hiring SpaceX as a chance to “increase its capacity to keep up with the satellite launch schedule”the company stated.
In addition to SpaceX, the retailer also hired 3 other companies to install satellites in Earth orbit: Arianespace, ULA (United Launch Alliance) and Blue Origin. The contracts establish 38, 18 and 12 launches with each of the companies, respectively.
Amazon’s first 2 experimental satellites were launched in October by ULA’s Atlas V rocket. In total, the company has 3,236 devices in orbit. Competitor Starlink has 5,000.
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