Jeff Bezos holds up aviation glasses that belonged to Amelia Earhart during a press conference about Blue Origin’s New Shepard space flight in Van Horn, Texas, July 20, 2021.
Joe Radle | Getty Images
Jeff Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin on Wednesday announced plans to deploy 5,408 satellites into space for a communications network that will compete with SpaceX. Amazon.
The network, called TeraWave, is aimed at enterprises, data centers, and government users.
The company announced it will provide data speeds of “up to 6 terabits per second” from satellites placed in low and medium Earth orbit, regions of space between 160 miles and 21,000 miles above the Earth’s surface.
Blue Origin said it plans to begin deploying the constellation in the fourth quarter of 2027.
Bezos is trying to enter the increasingly crowded satellite internet market, currently dominated by Starlink, a service run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Starlink has more than 9,000 satellites in orbit and approximately 9 million customers.
Amazon, which Bezos founded in 1994, has also beefed up its services over the past year. The service was recently rebranded from Project Kuiper to Leo.
Since last April, the company has launched 180 satellites through a series of rocket launches carried out by partners including United Launch Alliance and SpaceX.
Some future deployments will be handled by Blue Origin.
Amazon aims to build a constellation of 3,236 low-Earth satellites that will serve businesses, governments, and consumers. Last November, the company released an “enterprise preview” to some users ahead of a broader commercial launch.
Bezos predicted in 2024 that Blue Origin would one day become a bigger company than Amazon. He founded Blue Origin in 2000, and former Amazon device chief Dave Limp serves as CEO.
“I think this is going to be the best business I’ve ever been in, but it’s going to take time,” Bezos said in a 2024 interview at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit.
Blue Origin is primarily a rocket launch company that flies tourists and researchers to the edge of space on short trips. Last January, the company reached a major milestone with the first successful launch of its towering New Glenn rocket, but was unable to return the rocket’s booster to the barge for reuse.
