SpaceX has been enjoying growing uptake of its internet-from-space Starlink service, but in a weird twist, the company is about to lend a hand to its main rival in the sector.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is about to launch 24 satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper program, which, like Starlink, will offer internet connectivity to individuals and businesses globally.
The mission is aiming to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1:57 a.m. ET on Wednesday. A live webcast will begin about 15 minutes before launch, which you can watch on X @SpaceX.
Amazon’s Project Kuiper is still in its early days, having so far deployed only 54 internet satellites in two missions, the first of which took place in April. SpaceX’s Starlink, meanwhile, is much further down the road, with more than 7,000 satellites now serving more than 5 million customers globally following its first deployment in 2019.
Amazon used a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket for its first two Project Kuiper satellite launches. But the regulator has insisted that it must have half of its planned 3,200 satellites deployed by the end of July 2026, with the rest facing a July 2029 deadline for deployment. Failure to meet the initial milestone could risk key license permissions, though it’s thought that Amazon would probably be granted additional time if needed.
The tight deadline has prompted Amazon to tap the services of multiple launch providers, with not only ULA and SpaceX but also Arianespace, and Blue Origin — the company started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — likely to send Project Kuiper satellites to orbit over the next 12 months and beyond.
The unusual collaboration means that SpaceX is actually helping to accelerate a direct competitor’s progress, a move that intensifies the high-stakes race for dominance in the orbital internet sector.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.