Amazon decides to compete with SpaceX

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Amazon decides to compete with SpaceX

Postby Suff » 05 Apr 2022, 17:50

And buys the vast majority of spare launch capacity for the next 5 years in order to create a Satellite Internet constellation.

With this deal, Amazon has acquired an extraordinary amount of medium- and heavy-lift launch capacity over the next five years, procuring launches from every major Western provider except for its direct satellite competitor, SpaceX. Aside from SpaceX, this purchase represents the vast majority of any "spare" launch capacity for larger rockets in the United States or Europe over the next half-decade.


There are just a few problems with this. Ariane 6 is late and has no delivery timeline. ULA are relying on Blue Origin (also owned by Bezos), to supply the Vulcan rocket engine for future ULA launches. Now that Russian rocket motors are no longer available, this is important as almost all remaining ULA rockets are already scheduled.

Vulcan has not even completed full testing yet.

Then there are the New Glenn launches. New Glenn is supposed to be around the same capability as SpaceX starship. But SpaceX started building Starship in 2019 and is not expected to go into commercial operations until 2023/24. Starship has been on a super speed crash course development. Something no other space provider has achieved.

I'm guessing you'll need to wait a decade (or two), for that Amazon satellite internet offering......

I have my own pet name for Blue Origin. Still blue but the O has a different connotation. More the organ they are talking out of.
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