- Amazon has contracted with SpaceX to use Falcon 9 rockets to launch Amazon’s low-orbit satellites.
- Financial terms of the deal between the satellite Internet rivals were not disclosed.
- The rockets are set to lift off in 2025 in support of Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
Amazon and SpaceX, rivals in the satellite Internet industry, have signed a deal to launch satellites that will support Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
Three launches of SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets are scheduled for early 2025, according to Friday. Report Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by Amazon.
Launches with SpaceX’s rockets will boost the company’s ability to support a full-scale deployment of its own low-Earth orbit satellites, scheduled to launch in the first half of 2024, according to Amazon’s statement.
As part of a $10 billion plan to build a suite of satellites to rival SpaceX’s Starling, Amazon Arianespace announced a partnership with United Launch Alliance and Jeff Bezos’ aerospace manufacturing company Blue Origin. Satellites in orbit.
An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that the previously announced rollout deals will provide enough capacity to launch the bulk of the company’s planned constellation, adding, “We always plan to add more capacity to support our long-term deployment schedule, and these rollouts are part of that strategy.”
In response to the news on X, formerly Twitter, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said: “SpaceX is launching rival satellite systems without favoring its own satellites. Fair and square.”
Representatives for SpaceX did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
Two prototypes for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite suite, a direct competitor to SpaceX’s Starling, were launched in early October. Prototype launches of Cybersat-1 and Cybersat-2 have been delayed since late 2022 because of changes to the rocket-delivery system that launches the devices.
The prototypes — which Amazon said helped validate design and network architecture — are the first of 3,200 satellites to be launched over the next six years that Amazon plans to use to deliver broadband Internet in orbit.
Starlink began launching satellites in 2019 and has more than 4,000 satellites in orbit, eventually planning to build a constellation of about 42,000.
In September, the company declared It has reached Internet connectivity on seven continents, providing high-speed Internet to more than 2 million people in 60 countries.
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