Blue Origin, the rocket firm owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says it can launch greater than 5,400 satellites to create a brand new communications community.
Named TeraWave, it can supply steady web entry world wide, with the power to maneuver giant quantities of knowledge way more rapidly than rival companies.
However even after launching hundreds of satellites, Blue Origin would nonetheless have far fewer in orbit than Elon Musk’s Starlink, which at the moment dominates the satellite tv for pc web market.
Starlink – a part of Musk’s rocket agency SpaceX – additionally affords web and cellphone companies to particular person clients, whereas Blue Origin says TeraWave shall be targeted on knowledge centres, companies and governments.
Blue Origin mentioned its community, at its quickest, would permit add and obtain speeds of as a lot as 6 terabits per second, a lot sooner than rival industrial satellite tv for pc companies at the moment supply.
One other competitor to TeraWave is Amazon, the expertise large that made Bezos a multi-billionaire. He’s nonetheless Amazon’s government chairman after stepping down in 2021 as its chief government.
Amazon’s satellite tv for pc enterprise is named Leo. Whereas it at the moment has round 180 satellites in orbit, having launched dozens extra simply final week, it plans to have greater than 3,000 in orbit.
Like Starlink, Amazon can also be extra targeted on most people than companies and governments, pitching Leo as a approach to supply high-speed web entry globally. It has not mentioned when all the Leo satellites shall be in orbit.
Blue Origin mentioned it can begin launching its TeraWave satellites by the top of 2027.
In November, the corporate successfully landed a rocket booster on a floating platform for the primary time.
Solely SpaceX had beforehand achieved this feat.
In April, Blue Origin launched an 11-minute space flight with an all-female crew, together with Bezos’ now-wife Lauren Sánchez, singer Katie Perry and CBS presenter Gayle King.
However some commentators mentioned it was “tone deaf” for celebrities to be participating in such a fleeting and costly journey at a time of financial wrestle.
