In a space race between two companies created by Jeff Bezos, it looks like his e-commerce company Amazon will beat his rocket company Blue Origin in orbit.
Two Amazon prototype satellites were launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday. They are part of Project Kuiper, a communications constellation that will ultimately consist of more than 3,200 satellites. It will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink and other space-based internet services.
The rocket’s launch occurred at 2:06 p.m. Eastern Time. T The upper stage of the rocket separated from the launch vehicle after a few minutes of flight and continues to carry the satellites into orbit.
Once deployed, the two Amazon satellites will orbit 500 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. After deploying the spacecraft’s solar panels and testing its systems, the satellites will beam Internet connections from space to the company’s flat, square, consumer-grade antennas on the ground.
“This is the first time Amazon is sending satellites into space, and we will learn an incredible amount no matter how the mission evolves,” Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper at Amazon, said in a company statement.
Amazon builds satellites and Mr. Bezos’ other company builds rockets. So why doesn’t one fly over the other? That’s because Blue Origin hasn’t put anything into orbit yet.
Although its New Shepard suborbital space tourist rocket has completed many flights, the New Glenn rocket, which the company has been developing for more than a decade to launch payloads such as Kuiper satellites into orbit, is at least three years behind schedule. The first flight is planned for next year.
In April last year, Amazon announced a gigantic purchase of up to 83 rocket launchers, the largest commercial purchase of rocket launches ever. These include 27 from Blue Origin and the rest from two other companies, Arianespace from France and United Launch Alliance from the United States. The contracts with the other companies also rely on new rockets that have not yet flown: the Ariane 6 from Arianespace and the Vulcan from United Launch Alliance.
Amazon also previously announced that it was purchasing nine launches of the venerable Atlas V rockets from the United Launch Alliance. Atlas V has been flying for more than two decades but is being phased out because it relies on Russian-made rocket engines.
The two satellites, KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, form what Amazon calls the Protoflight mission for Kuiper. They were intended to serve as payload for the first launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket in May. But during a test of a volcanic upper stage, a hydrogen leak ignited into a fireball. In July, Tory Bruno, executive director of United Launch Alliance, said the company was working on a solution and that the Vulcan’s first flight was expected before the end of the year.
In August, Amazon announced it was switching its rockets from the Vulcan to an Atlas V. This was the second missile change for the Protoflight. Amazon had originally planned to launch KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 using smaller rockets from ABL Space Systems, but ABL also experienced delays.
Officials from Blue Origin, Arianespace and United Launch Alliance have said they expect to meet the Kuiper launch schedule.
The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates satellite communications to Earth, approved Amazon’s network in 2020. It gave the company a deadline to launch half of its 3,236 satellites by July 2026, with the full constellation to be deployed by July 2029.
A pension fund that owns Amazon stock sued Amazon in August for failing to buy launch vehicles from SpaceX, which has launched Falcon 9 rockets 70 times this year and has contracts with other competitors to its Starlink service.
The complaint, filed by the Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, said Amazon’s board approved the introductory contracts after only a cursory review and took no action to protect Amazon from conflicts of interest for Mr. Bezos as the owner of Blue Origin and also the company at the time CEO of Amazon.
“For a year and a half, Bezos had the freedom to identify and negotiate with launch providers for Amazon, while also being free to negotiate against Amazon on Blue Origin’s behalf,” the lawsuit says.
In addition to supplying New Glenn launches to Amazon, Blue Origin will also benefit from the Vulcan launches as the United Launch Alliance purchases Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines to power the booster stage of the Vulcan rockets.
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement: “The claims in this lawsuit are completely without merit, and we look forward to proving this through the legal process.”
The lawsuit also expressed years of animosity between Mr. Bezos and Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX.
“Given their bitter track record, Bezos had every reason to exclude Musk’s SpaceX from the process entirely,” the lawsuit says. “And Bezos, one has to assume, couldn’t suppress his pride and enlist the help of his bitter rival to launch the Amazon satellites.”