Space rivalry
Competition for Musk: First Amazon satellites in space
With fast internet from space you have not yet passed Starlink from Tech billionaire Elon Musk. But now Amazon starts with his competition after years of preparation.
Amazon brought his first Internet satellites into space and thus starts building a rival for Elon Musk Starlink system. In the first step, 27 satellites came into orbit. The system for internet supply from space called Project Kuiper is to be expanded to around 3,200 satellites in the coming years.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is a pioneer in fast internet from space with the Starlink satellites of his space company SpaceX. Such services are not only interesting for consumers, but also, for example, also for airlines – or for telecommunications companies that do not want to build expensive infrastructure in remote or sparsely populated areas.
Amazon already secured space for Kuiper with dozens of future rocket starts – both with Blue Origin and SpaceX. According to the current operating license, 1,600 Kuiper satellites must be in space by the middle of next year. With his space company Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is a direct – albeit much smaller – competitor of Musk and SpaceX.
The 27 fully functional satellites now came into space on the second attempt. The first attempt to start the operator United Launch Alliance (ULA )’s rocket was postponed two weeks ago due to bad weather conditions. In autumn 2023, Amazon had tested the functionality of the system with two test satellites.
Competition from many desired
Starlink now comes to around 7,000 satellites. Industry observers see space on the market for rivals, many customers would welcome more competition in the market. Musk became a controversial figure due to his right political views and the role as cost of costs by US President Donald Trump in the American government apparatus.
Musk’s Starlink is also used by Ukraine, where the Russian troops specifically damaged the telecommunications networks in their attack war. However, the Tech billionaire said that he had prevented a Ukrainian attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet by refusing to activate the Starlink cover in the area.
dpa
Source: Stern
