While Elon Musk has paved the way for opportunities in space, Jeff Bezos of Amazon is planning to catch up with his Blue Origin company.
Amazon Launches Test Satellites to Space
Last Friday, Amazon deployed its first pair of test satellites to space from Florida. The prototype satellites are the first part of the tech billionaire's plans to establish a Kuiper internet network. The satellites were deployed aboard the United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket.
This mission of Amazon is aimed at testing the company's first space technology. Overall, Amazon plans to deploy 3,236 different satellites in the coming years, most launching from Cape Canaveral on the New Glenn rockets of Blue Origin or the new Vulcan Centaur rockets of ULA. The tech behemoth plans to offer global internet broadband.
The Federal Communications Commission of the US requires Amazon to launch half of its planned satellite constellation by 2026. Amazon also promised to allocate $10 billion worth of investments toward the Kuiper project, which was first announced in 2019.
It is believed that the market for low-Earth orbit satellite internet broadband could be worth billions of dollars in the next ten years.
Though Starlink makes SpaceX the biggest satellite operator in the world, Amazon also has other rivals. These are Telesat from Canada, which has not yet deployed satellites, and Eutelsat's OneWeb from France, which mainly provides internet to businesses and government agencies.
Similar to SpaceX, Amazon hopes to cater to enterprise and individual consumers. Though no prices have been announced yet, it may have a company cost of $400 each for consumer terminals to be built. The consumer terminals of Starlink cost $599 each.
For the remaining Kuiper network's deployment, Amazon revealed a "bulk launch deal" for as many as 83 launches from rocket firms, including Blue Origin, Arianespace of Europe, and ULA.
However, Bezos and Amazon are facing lawsuits that accuse the company of not exerting proper diligence and not considering cheaper rockets from SpaceX.
Elon Musk's Starlink
Starlink is the first and biggest satellite constellation in a low-Earth orbit. This satellite network is designed to offer broadband internet service to Earth. The technology mostly leverages high-end satellites and hardware alongside expertise in on-orbit and spacecraft operations. With this, Starlink can deliver low-latency and high-speed internet across the globe.
Though the majority of satellite internet services originated from single satellites that are geostationary and that orbit the Earth at 35,786 kilometers, Starlink comprises thousands of satellites that orbit much closer at 550 kilometers. Not to mention, this satellite constellation covers the whole world. Because of its low orbit positioning, latency is remarkably lower.
Each satellite has a flat panel and compact design that reduces volume. This further enables a dense launch stack that capitalized on the Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX.
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