Blue Origin, the rocket firm owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says it is going to launch greater than 5,400 satellites to create a brand new communications community.
Named TeraWave, it is going to provide steady web entry around the globe, with the power to maneuver massive quantities of knowledge rather more rapidly than rival providers.
However even after launching hundreds of satellites, Blue Origin would nonetheless have far fewer in orbit than Elon Musk’s Starlink, which presently dominates the satellite tv for pc web market.
Starlink – a part of Musk’s rocket agency SpaceX – additionally gives web and telephone providers to particular person clients, whereas Blue Origin says TeraWave might be centered on information centres, companies and governments.
Blue Origin mentioned its community, at its quickest, would enable add and obtain speeds of as a lot as 6 terabits per second, a lot sooner than rival business satellite tv for pc providers presently provide.
One other competitor to TeraWave is Amazon, the know-how big 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 presently 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 centered on most people than companies and governments, pitching Leo as a method to provide high-speed web entry globally. It has not mentioned when all the Leo satellites might be in orbit.
Blue Origin mentioned it is going to begin launching its TeraWave satellites by the tip 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 collaborating in such a fleeting and costly journey at a time of financial wrestle.
