Blue Origin, the rocket firm owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says it’s going to launch greater than 5,400 satellites to create a brand new communications community.
Named TeraWave, it’s going to supply steady web entry around the globe, with the flexibility to maneuver massive quantities of information way more shortly than rival companies.
However even after launching hundreds of satellites, Blue Origin would nonetheless have far fewer in orbit than Elon Musk’s Starlink, which at the moment dominates the satellite tv for pc web market.
Starlink – a part of Musk’s rocket agency SpaceX – additionally gives web and telephone companies to particular person clients, whereas Blue Origin says TeraWave will probably be targeted on knowledge centres, companies and governments.
Blue Origin stated its community, at its quickest, would permit add and obtain speeds of as a lot as 6 terabits per second, a lot quicker than rival business satellite tv for pc companies at the moment supply.
One other competitor to TeraWave is Amazon, the know-how big that made Bezos a multi-billionaire. He’s nonetheless Amazon’s govt chairman after stepping down in 2021 as its chief govt.
Amazon’s satellite tv for pc enterprise known as Leo. Whereas it at the moment has solely 80 satellites in orbit, having launched dozens extra simply final week, it plans to have greater than 3,000 in orbit.
Like Starlink, Amazon can also be extra targeted on most of the people than companies and governments, pitching Leo as a strategy to supply high-speed web entry globally. It has not stated when the entire Leo satellites will probably be in orbit.
Blue Origin stated it’s going to begin launching its TeraWave satellites by the top of 2027.
In November, the corporate successfully landed a rocket booster on a floating platform for the primary time.
Solely SpaceX had beforehand completed this feat.
In April, Blue Origin launched an 11-minute space flight with an all-female crew, together with Bezos’ now-wife Lauren Sánchez, singer Katie Perry and CBS presenter Gayle King.
However some commentators stated it was “tone deaf” for celebrities to be collaborating in such a fleeting and costly journey at a time of financial wrestle.
