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So where is Amazon in relation to all of this? I got pinged by a recruiter from Kuiper the other week and all I can see is that there's no way they're on track

So where is Amazon in relation to all of this? I got pinged by a recruiter from Kuiper the other week and all I can see is that there's no way they're on track to be working in 5 years. They don't even have a stable launch platform. Would Musk sell Bezos the ride?

MetaWhirledPeas 6y ago
Bezos is in it only because he too has a rocket company. If he wanted to be in the business of feeding on the scraps of others he'd release his own terrestrial internet service.
- Robotbeat 6y ago
  That’s why Elon’s in it with Starlink. From Elon’s perspective, if Starlink merely breaks even, it will be more than worth it as it has drastically increased launch demand, enabling high flight rate reusable rockets.
  - shantara 6y ago
    Not just increased launch demand, Starlink launches serve SpaceX as a testbed for reusability and refurbishment techniques they want to experiment on themselves without risking customer hardware. For example, they intentionally swap hardware components between reflown boosters to better understand their behavior after multiple reuses, to the point they have individual modules that have flown more times than the current maximum number of reuses of any booster as a whole (currently at 9). Another example, they've stopped having static fires for flight proven boosters first for Starlink, then for customer payloads too, unless the customer explicitly requests it. It's unbelievable that "flight proven booster" turned out to be really what it says on the tin, and not just a piece of marketing speak.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      > It's unbelievable that "flight proven buster" turned out to be really what it says on the tin, and not just a piece of marketing speak. That's a thing to love about SpaceX. When they first started using this phrase, it was tongue-in-cheek in a pretty obvious way. Three years later, it was no longer a joke.
    - the8472 6y ago
      It's "booster", not "buster".
      - shantara 6y ago
        Fixed, thanks.
  - bryanlarsen 6y ago
    IIRC Musk has already said he'd be happy to launch rival constellations.
- philistine 6y ago
  Webservers... in space!
  - hackeraccount 6y ago
    Given that Starlink will do links between satellites that's actually an interesting idea. From what I've read one of the problems with it is heat management. Space is chilly but it's not a great heat sink and servers generate a lot of heat.
- parsimo2010 6y ago
  AWS has also created satellite ground stations in the last few years. A commercial satellite internet service running from the ground stations would probably justify scaling out, and having a larger network of ground stations would help AWS attract more commercial space customers. Bezos has been working this from a few angles, not just from a keep up with Musk attitude.
rklaehn 6y ago
I think SpaceX would sell them launches. First of all, why wouldn't they? They are confident that their satellite tech is superior. And second, SpaceX is dominating the commercial launch market to such a degree that they would run into antitrust issues if they were to use their launch dominance for antocompetitive behaviour. But Bezos would probably be too proud to launch on SpaceX...
- Robotbeat 6y ago
  Yeah, I agree. And this would be one reason to spin off Starlink in an IPO. So customers would be okay with SpaceX launching their constellation.
- marcusverus 6y ago
  Musk's stated goal for Space X is to colonize Mars. His stated goal for Starlink is to fund said colonization. I 'm not so sure that he would enable any competition that he saw as having the potential to pose a real threat to his ultimate goal.
  - m463 6y ago
    You know, I have to wonder though. I've been ok with the tesla-only superchargers, because they are good. But it is a self-serving infrastructure and a competitive advantage. I wonder what the reality would be about sending up bezos's satellites? It could also be a PR problem, PLUS it would undermine the bezos employees working on their launch platform.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
dillondoyle 6y ago
Would there be potential AWS synergies that make any sense? Besides having the money to basically give it away for free, that could be a big value add if so. idk maybe enabling the blanketing of the earth in ever expanding ring/echo surveillance. or a cdn though uploading huge video files to a satellite hard drive might not make any sense or actually save any MS given the inherent satellite -> earth delay.
- easton 6y ago
  There was always the hypothesis that servers in orbit would lower latency since you wouldn’t have to bounce back to Earth, but given the maintenance and power requirements I don’t think that’d be very doable. A CDN would work I think, provided you could power the hard drives.
  - unoti 6y ago
    > ...servers in orbit would lower latency since you wouldn’t have to bounce back to Earth... A CDN would work I think, provided you could power the hard drives. But doing it all solid state with RAM + SSD could totally make sense, especially if you cache only the highest access items in space... Something like this could also make sense to do custom silicon/ASICs to keep the power and weight requirements down.
- nickik 6y ago
  Partnerships with clouds are already happening. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/microsoft-expands-its-space-business-pairing-its-azure-cloud-with-spacexs-starlink-internet.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/microsoft-expands-its-space-... Unfortunately storage or compute in space likely don't make much sense at least for now. Its more about direct point to point speed of light access. Where the downlink is directly onto of the cloud datacenter.
- DC1350 6y ago
  I can’t think of any but it’s a cool marketing point to have literal cloud computing
rst 6y ago
RocketLab just announced they intend to build a rocket they're calling "a purpose-built megaconstellation building machine", but they're not planning to launch until 2024, and reportedly still are evaluating options for engines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqxJw5ISdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqxJw5ISdk And Bezos launching his satellites on someone else's rockets would be a pretty bitter pill...

MetaWhirledPeas 6y ago

Bezos is in it only because he too has a rocket company. If he wanted to be in the business of feeding on the scraps of others he'd release his own terrestrial internet service.

Robotbeat 6y ago
That’s why Elon’s in it with Starlink. From Elon’s perspective, if Starlink merely breaks even, it will be more than worth it as it has drastically increased launch demand, enabling high flight rate reusable rockets.
- shantara 6y ago
  Not just increased launch demand, Starlink launches serve SpaceX as a testbed for reusability and refurbishment techniques they want to experiment on themselves without risking customer hardware. For example, they intentionally swap hardware components between reflown boosters to better understand their behavior after multiple reuses, to the point they have individual modules that have flown more times than the current maximum number of reuses of any booster as a whole (currently at 9). Another example, they've stopped having static fires for flight proven boosters first for Starlink, then for customer payloads too, unless the customer explicitly requests it. It's unbelievable that "flight proven booster" turned out to be really what it says on the tin, and not just a piece of marketing speak.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    > It's unbelievable that "flight proven buster" turned out to be really what it says on the tin, and not just a piece of marketing speak. That's a thing to love about SpaceX. When they first started using this phrase, it was tongue-in-cheek in a pretty obvious way. Three years later, it was no longer a joke.
  - the8472 6y ago
    It's "booster", not "buster".
    - shantara 6y ago
      Fixed, thanks.
- bryanlarsen 6y ago
  IIRC Musk has already said he'd be happy to launch rival constellations.
philistine 6y ago
Webservers... in space!
- hackeraccount 6y ago
  Given that Starlink will do links between satellites that's actually an interesting idea. From what I've read one of the problems with it is heat management. Space is chilly but it's not a great heat sink and servers generate a lot of heat.
parsimo2010 6y ago
AWS has also created satellite ground stations in the last few years. A commercial satellite internet service running from the ground stations would probably justify scaling out, and having a larger network of ground stations would help AWS attract more commercial space customers. Bezos has been working this from a few angles, not just from a keep up with Musk attitude.

rklaehn 6y ago

I think SpaceX would sell them launches. First of all, why wouldn't they? They are confident that their satellite tech is superior. And second, SpaceX is dominating the commercial launch market to such a degree that they would run into antitrust issues if they were to use their launch dominance for antocompetitive behaviour. But Bezos would probably be too proud to launch on SpaceX...

Robotbeat 6y ago
Yeah, I agree. And this would be one reason to spin off Starlink in an IPO. So customers would be okay with SpaceX launching their constellation.
marcusverus 6y ago
Musk's stated goal for Space X is to colonize Mars. His stated goal for Starlink is to fund said colonization. I 'm not so sure that he would enable any competition that he saw as having the potential to pose a real threat to his ultimate goal.
- m463 6y ago
  You know, I have to wonder though. I've been ok with the tesla-only superchargers, because they are good. But it is a self-serving infrastructure and a competitive advantage. I wonder what the reality would be about sending up bezos's satellites? It could also be a PR problem, PLUS it would undermine the bezos employees working on their launch platform.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

dillondoyle 6y ago

Would there be potential AWS synergies that make any sense? Besides having the money to basically give it away for free, that could be a big value add if so. idk maybe enabling the blanketing of the earth in ever expanding ring/echo surveillance. or a cdn though uploading huge video files to a satellite hard drive might not make any sense or actually save any MS given the inherent satellite -> earth delay.

easton 6y ago
There was always the hypothesis that servers in orbit would lower latency since you wouldn’t have to bounce back to Earth, but given the maintenance and power requirements I don’t think that’d be very doable. A CDN would work I think, provided you could power the hard drives.
- unoti 6y ago
  > ...servers in orbit would lower latency since you wouldn’t have to bounce back to Earth... A CDN would work I think, provided you could power the hard drives. But doing it all solid state with RAM + SSD could totally make sense, especially if you cache only the highest access items in space... Something like this could also make sense to do custom silicon/ASICs to keep the power and weight requirements down.
nickik 6y ago
Partnerships with clouds are already happening. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/microsoft-expands-its-space-business-pairing-its-azure-cloud-with-spacexs-starlink-internet.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/microsoft-expands-its-space-... Unfortunately storage or compute in space likely don't make much sense at least for now. Its more about direct point to point speed of light access. Where the downlink is directly onto of the cloud datacenter.
DC1350 6y ago
I can’t think of any but it’s a cool marketing point to have literal cloud computing

rst 6y ago

RocketLab just announced they intend to build a rocket they're calling "a purpose-built megaconstellation building machine", but they're not planning to launch until 2024, and reportedly still are evaluating options for engines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqxJw5ISdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqxJw5ISdk And Bezos launching his satellites on someone else's rockets would be a pretty bitter pill...