Bezos’ Blue Origin debuts satellite service to rival SpaceX, Amazon

Jeff Bezos’ space initiative Blue Origin It plans to put 5,408 satellites into space for a communications network that will take over SpaceX, it announced Wednesday. Amazon.

The network, called TeraWave, targets corporate, data center and public users.

The company said it will provide data rates of “up to 6 terabits per second” from satellites positioned in low-Earth orbit and medium-Earth orbit, regions of space between 100 miles and 21,000 miles above the Earth’s surface.

Blue Origin said it expects to begin deploying the constellation in the fourth quarter of 2027.

Bezos is entering an increasingly crowded satellite internet market currently dominated by Starlink, a service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Starlink has more than 9,000 satellites in orbit and nearly 9 million customers.

Amazon, which Bezos founded in 1994, also increased its own offerings last year. The service was recently rebranded as Leo from Project Kuiper.

Since last April, the company has launched 180 satellites through a series of rocket launches by partners such as United Launch Alliance and SpaceX.

Several future deployments are expected to be handled by Blue Origin.

Amazon aims to build a constellation of 3,236 low-Earth satellites that will serve businesses, governments and consumers. Last November, the company launched an “enterprise preview” for select users ahead of a broader commercial launch.

Bezos predicted that Blue Origin would one day become a larger company than Amazon in 2024. He founded Blue Origin in 2000, and former Amazon device boss Dave Limp serves as its CEO.

“I think this will be the best job I’ve ever been involved in, but it’s going to take a while,” Bezos said in a 2024 interview at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit.

Blue Origin is a rocket launch company that primarily flies tourists and research to the edge of space on short trips. Last January, the initiative reached a major milestone by successfully launching its towering New Glenn rocket for the first time, but was unable to return the rocket’s booster to the barge for reuse. Blue Origin nailed the landing The launch of the New Glenn rocket booster last November followed the successful launch of a pair of NASA spacecraft.