He has diversified most of the launches to deploy his Kuiper satellites on three rockets from three different launch service companies: the American giant United Launch Alliance (ULA) the European company Arianespace and his own space company, Blue Origin. With more than 400 small satellites already deployed, he has made his terminals and network available to President Volodymir Zelensky since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine to confront the Russian military forces.īezos is clearly not playing a one-card game. Musk's ambition is to put more than 7,000 satellites into orbit, also to provide broadband and space internet on a global scale. The initiative of the entrepreneur Bezos is a real challenge to the Starlink constellation of his competitor Elon Musk, who with 219 billion dollars in his portfolio occupies the first position in the exclusive ranking of billionaires and is going to increase his fortune after the purchase of nearly 10% of Twitter's shares. PHOTO/Amazon - Artist's rendering of the main space vehicles Amazon is relying on to deploy its Kuiper constellation: from left to right, Vulcan Centaur (ULA), New Glenn (Blue Origin) and Ariane 6 (Arianespace).
If not, it will lose them, unless there is a moratorium. If it succeeds, it will keep the rights granted to it by the US Federal Communications Commission in August 2020.
The third is to have all 3,236 in the constellation in space by the end of July 2029. The next step is to add up to 1,600 satellites and have them operational by 30 July 2026. Then launch and position them in low orbit around the entire earth at 590, 610 and 630 kilometres altitude.Īmazon wants to start providing services when it has 578 active satellites, but has not said when that will be. With a total planned investment of $10 billion, the undisputed king of global e-commerce plans to manufacture more than three thousand small Kuiper satellites at its factory under construction in Redmon, in the north-west of the United States. But despite diversifying, the risk is too high. PHOTO/JFK Library - All three launchers offer the right combination of capacity, performance and cost to meet our needs, says Jeff Bezos. Through its subsidiary Kuiper Systems LLC, Amazon has become the world's largest purchaser of launchers, acquiring 93 flights into space. The American tycoon, who stepped down as CEO of Amazon in July 2021 - although he remains as executive chairman of its Board of Directors - has just formalised the largest commercial space commitment in history. With them he aims to realise his Kuiper project, which consists of deploying 3,236 Ka-band satellites in orbit to provide broadband and high-speed Internet access - at 400 megabits per second - to millions of people all over the world, from individuals to companies and official institutions. In an unprecedented three-way manoeuvre in the space sector, Bezos has just signed a mega-contract that ensures he has almost a hundred rockets at his disposal over the next five years. The second richest man in the world, with a fortune valued by Forbes magazine at 171 billion dollars and founder of the Amazon empire, Jeff Bezos, has taken a new giant step, confirming that his mind and his sights are set on the big business that can be glimpsed from outer space.