Amazon has launched the first test satellites for its proposed satellite internet service on Friday, as the company seeks to close the gap on Elon Musk’s Starlink, which is already offering global internet coverage.
The Amazon satellites were carried into orbit by an Atlas V rocket designed by Lockheed Martin and operated by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
Elon Musk Starlink (NurPhoto/Getty)
As Breitbart News previously reported, Amazon is planning to ramp up both satellite production and launches as it races to catch up with competitors Starlink and OneWeb.
Via Breitbart News:
Amazon plans to launch up to 80 satellites per month as it aims to compete with satellite-powered internet connectivity services including SpaceX and OneWeb.
The tech giant is preparing mass production of its Kuiper satellites at its 172,000 square foot factory Kirkland, Washington.
The government of Florida, run by Republican governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, also recently announced a 100,000 square foot satellite processing facility for the Kuiper satellites at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Amazon has some catching up to do — SpaceX’s Starlink program has over 4,000 satellites in orbit, powering an internet connectivity service that already has over 1.5 million subscribers. OneWeb also has a sizeable fleet in orbit, numbering over 600.
The battle between Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been dubbed the “billionaire space race,” with both men competing to dominate the space sector. The competition has even resulted in lawsuits, with Bezos’s Blue Origin suing NASA over the U.S. space agency’s decision to award a contract for a lunar landing vehicle to Musk’s SpaceX.
Amazon has reportedly reserved 77 launches on United Launch Alliance rockets to get its satellites into orbit. The company hopes to offer satellite internet to consumers by the close of 2024.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @AllumBokhari.