The two richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, may soon become the protagonists of a new challenge, that of “conquering” space. The Amazon CEO is about to launch two projects that could dent the SpaceX owner’s dominance.
Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, is planning to launch its New Glenn, a huge rocket that will compete directly with Musk’s reusable Falcon 9. Amazon also is preparing to promote Project Kuiper, the company’s network of satellites that will challenge Starlink in providing Internet access from space in low Earth orbit, with a network of more than 3,200 devices.
The two plans by Bezos’ companies represent perhaps the most ambitious attempt in recent years to counter SpaceX’s dominance in the space market, as well as a new chapter in the rivalry between the world’s two richest men.
With its frequent launches, SpaceX carried about 85 percent of all orbital mass put into space last quarter. The company has also completed more than 130 launches this year and is continuing to test its mammoth Starship rocket. The Starlink network also has more than 6,000 satellites positioned above the globe. The latter serves more than four million customers and has become a key provider of Internet in isolated places, such as battlefields in Ukraine.
Although it has carried small groups of celebrities and wealthy passengers on short trips to the edge of space, Bezos’s Blue Origin, on the other hand, has had limited commercial effect so far. For this reason, then, with new projects in the pipeline, Bezos hopes to relaunch his company for good.
The New Glenn rocket, as tall as a 32-story building, is designed to repeatedly carry satellites and other cargo into space. Equipped with a reusable booster, New Glenn is now at Blue Origin’s launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is expected to fly in the coming weeks. The launch of Project Kuiper, on the other hand, which envisions a “constellation” of as many as 3,232 satellites, has been delayed until early 2025.
The Amazon founder also has never hidden that his future goal is to see “giant” space stations built, capable of housing thousands of people. Bezos also said that he resigned as Amazon’s CEO specifically to follow the plans and progress of his Blue Origin firsthand.
