This is not a drill: Amazon bought SpaceX launches.
Amazon's satellite internet network Project Kuiper aims to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink – and will fly on the latter's rockets to do so.
Read more:https://t.co/FipIFAum6l
— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) December 1, 2023
Amazon signed with SpaceX for three Falcon 9 launches in mid-2025.
Amazon expects to invest upwards of $10 billion to build Kuiper. Earlier this year the company broke ground on a $120 million pre-launch processing facility in Florida.
Amazon must deploy half of its planned 3,236 satellites in orbit by July 2026 to comply with the FCC.,
Amazon has orders for more than 77 launches from Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance, Arianespace and ABL. But delays in the development of those rockets have led Amazon to change launch plans
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
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Note the underlying message here; New Glenn, Vulcan, Ariane 6, LVM3, AND H-3 are now suspected of being delayed enough to jeopardize Kuipers frequency allocation deadlines. That’s a pretty big signal to others that there’s something deeply wrong with all these launchers, such that Kuiper needs to backstop their deployment by roughly 100 or so satellites before the deadline.
Besos founded Blue Origin in 2000 before SpaceX (2002). In 23 years it has yet to orbit anything!! Remarkable.
Musk compared Starlink equipped Ukrainian sea drones attacking Russian warships to Pearl Harbor,we can never trust this man,or we can trust him to be an enemy of the people.
I still root for Starship,just want Vulcan and New Glenn to succeed as well.
Truly an enemy of the people, comrade!
We should send him to gulag.
If Bezos is bending the knee, then Elon,with X, is on all fours getting it from behind. See how these metaphors work?
But as I said,SpaceX second launch was glorious, the next one will make it to Hawaii.
This is hilarious. Bezos buying rocket launches from SpaceX.
its about time they started working together where possible! colonization of space is a costly endeavor and they should work together more on it.
Gosh I think that both of them have enough money to colonize space. Also competition is a GOOD thing.
Nope it’s going to cost trillions.
Shame we have to war so much.
A Kessler Syndrome is virtually inevitable with 1,000s of satellites from 2, 3 or more companies plus other governments whizzing by each other in NEO. There’s no way to control all of them in RT plus whatever spaceships need to thread between them at 17,000mph orbital speed. I just hope none of the debris crashes into large targets like the ISS or starships, should they ever stop exploding long enough to reach orbit.
I can’t understand why the new Space Bureau of the FCC is OK with this. Just like radio/TV spectrum is finite and needs to be licensed, space paths/locations are finite and need to be exclusively licensed, then renewed every year. Eventually, first mover advantage will disappear if such locations have to be renewed annually, and it would be a good and just source of revenue for the Space Commons.
These new satellite constellations are at such low altitude that they’re actually experiencing significant air drag, and can only stay in orbit for a few years. Kessler syndrome is extremely unlikely to happen at such a low altitude, and even if it happened, would naturally clear itself rapidly.
Things like the ISS are at considerably higher altitude, in much less populated orbits.
We track everything in space and this is factored in to launch windows.
Scott.
Space is really, really big.
With dirt-cheap assured access to space cleaning up won’t be the unaffordable thing it is today.
Stay positive.
hahaha, would’ve loved to see the look on Bezos’s face while signing that check.
That man should be fired from his own company, they do NOTHING.
Their “motto” is Gradatim ferociter, Which means: Step by Step, Ferociously.
Should be Step by Step, Feebly.
The tortoise beat the hare in the proverb because the hare was lazy. Elon is a marathon running hare obsessed with speed. In this case it’s the tortoise that’s lazy.