The retailer's Project Kuiper, which is meant to provide space-based internet service, is scheduled to launch its first satellites into orbit on Friday.
The competition between Amazon.com and SpaceX enters a new phase this week. The first Kuiper satellites are slated to go into low Earth orbit, launching aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
ULA is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that seeks to compete with SpaceX in the rocket launch business. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has similar capabilities to an Atlas V rocket, with the extra advantage that the company is able to land and reuse the lower stage of the Falcon launch vehicle.
Blue Origin has a commercial space tourism business and some contracts with commercial and government entities, including a deal with Amazon for 27 Kuiper launches. Amazon is also using ULA as well as Arianespace to launch satellites. Amazon needs multiple players because it doesn’t have its own rockets like SpaceX does.
SpaceX amassed about one million users at the end of 2022. At the pace of recent additions, that number might be two million by the end of 2023.
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