4 ms·

Amazon to launch Project Kuiper satellites on SpaceX Falcon 9

22 points by basementcat 3y ago

borissk 3y ago
Sounds like bad news for Blue Origin - they can't even lunch Amazon's own satellites.
- sam_bristow 3y ago
  Technically Blue Origin and Amazon/Kuiper are competely separate companies. They both just happen to be majority owned by Bezos. It's still had to be a massive blow to BO though.
  - tomcam 3y ago
    Note to self: never start a company likely to be known by the initials "BO"
    - borissk 3y ago
      Why?
      - tomcam 3y ago
        In American English slang it’s short for body odor, and is considered mildly offensive
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    > Technically Blue Origin and Amazon/Kuiper are competely separate companies. They both just happen to be majority owned by Bezos. No, Amazon is not majority-owned by Bezos.
    - sam_bristow 3y ago
      You're right. Far too lax in my wording. s/majority owned/major shareholder/
- wkat4242 3y ago
  Well they've never launched anything to orbit yet, not even a test. But they do have new Glenn slated for launch in Q3 next year..
- panick21_ 3y ago
  BlueOrigin has more Amazin contracts then SpaceX. And the majority of launches are going to be by ULA and Arianespace anyway. There are now 4 companies that contracts. Despite this, very likely Amazon is gone miss its sat required to FAA. But Im sure they are already preparing some excuses on why the failed to comply with the licence (covid ...).
  - borissk 3y ago
    Don't think FAA will dare challenge Bezos huge army of lawyers anyway.
- Rebelgecko 3y ago
  They don't have the same vertical integration as SpaceX/Starlink.
  - LargeTomato 3y ago
    If you ask most people who work at Amazon they will tell you that Blue Origin is amazon's rocket company. The perception of vertical integration is there. Also, Amazon initially went with Blue and that decision was so bad in hind sight they are being sued https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2023/09/07/amazon-faces-shareholder-lawsuit-blue-origin.html https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2023/09/07/amazon-f... that implies some bias towards Blue.
    - Rebelgecko 3y ago
      Does Amazon get launches for below market rate?
aredox 3y ago
What a waste of money on Blue Origin. Bezos could have paid a living wave to all its employees, especially the most menial ones. How do you feel when you are all "the end justify the means" and the end is never reached?
filterfiber 3y ago
Why are people surprised by them not using blue origin? Blue origin isn't scheduled to fly for some time yet. Amazon already announced agreements with 2 other companys as well. Amazon is a separate company with their own timelines. Why would they want their Kuiper project to depend on the success of blue origin, instead of launching it on reliable rockets until blue origin proves to be reliable? Companys use competitor products when it's beyond their own capacity all the time. See Google and Tesla both being major customers of nvidia despite both making their own TPUs.
- LargeTomato 3y ago
  > Why are people surprised by them not using blue origin? Blue origin is owned by JB and is de facto considered "amazon's rocket company". Even actual amazonians believe this. > Blue origin isn't scheduled to fly for some time yet. Due to schedule slips. Egregious schedule slips. The original plan was to launch the bulk of the satellites with Blue Origin. > Amazon already announced agreements with 2 other companies as well. Neither of those companies directly compete with Kuiper. Starlink and Kuiper do compete with each other. > Why would they want their Kuiper project to depend on the success of Blue Origin? It's not that Amazon intended for this to happen. Blue Origin is so incredibly far behind their deadlines that amazon's hand was forced. A decision was never made to state Kuiper on Blue. A decision was made to move away from blue because they cannot deliver on their promise. > See Google and Tesla both being major customers of nvidia despite both making their own TPUs. TPUs are not a core business of either player. They are used internally. There is a very meaningful difference between TPUs and a satellite Internet constellation.
  - panick21_ 3y ago
    Do you have any evidence for the fact that Amazon initially wanted only Blue? Because even if Blue had managed orbit, doing the full constellation was never likely. Even with 3-4 companies and 4-5 different rockets working on it, they will likely not make FAA damage. The ULA Atlas 5 deal was the first one they signed.
- panick21_ 3y ago

22 points by basementcat 3y ago

borissk 3y ago

Sounds like bad news for Blue Origin - they can't even lunch Amazon's own satellites.

sam_bristow 3y ago
Technically Blue Origin and Amazon/Kuiper are competely separate companies. They both just happen to be majority owned by Bezos. It's still had to be a massive blow to BO though.
- tomcam 3y ago
  Note to self: never start a company likely to be known by the initials "BO"
  - borissk 3y ago
    Why?
    - tomcam 3y ago
      In American English slang it’s short for body odor, and is considered mildly offensive
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  > Technically Blue Origin and Amazon/Kuiper are competely separate companies. They both just happen to be majority owned by Bezos. No, Amazon is not majority-owned by Bezos.
  - sam_bristow 3y ago
    You're right. Far too lax in my wording. s/majority owned/major shareholder/
wkat4242 3y ago
Well they've never launched anything to orbit yet, not even a test. But they do have new Glenn slated for launch in Q3 next year..
panick21_ 3y ago
BlueOrigin has more Amazin contracts then SpaceX. And the majority of launches are going to be by ULA and Arianespace anyway. There are now 4 companies that contracts. Despite this, very likely Amazon is gone miss its sat required to FAA. But Im sure they are already preparing some excuses on why the failed to comply with the licence (covid ...).
- borissk 3y ago
  Don't think FAA will dare challenge Bezos huge army of lawyers anyway.
Rebelgecko 3y ago
They don't have the same vertical integration as SpaceX/Starlink.
- LargeTomato 3y ago
  If you ask most people who work at Amazon they will tell you that Blue Origin is amazon's rocket company. The perception of vertical integration is there. Also, Amazon initially went with Blue and that decision was so bad in hind sight they are being sued https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2023/09/07/amazon-faces-shareholder-lawsuit-blue-origin.html https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2023/09/07/amazon-f... that implies some bias towards Blue.
  - Rebelgecko 3y ago
    Does Amazon get launches for below market rate?

aredox 3y ago

What a waste of money on Blue Origin. Bezos could have paid a living wave to all its employees, especially the most menial ones. How do you feel when you are all "the end justify the means" and the end is never reached?

filterfiber 3y ago

Why are people surprised by them not using blue origin? Blue origin isn't scheduled to fly for some time yet. Amazon already announced agreements with 2 other companys as well. Amazon is a separate company with their own timelines. Why would they want their Kuiper project to depend on the success of blue origin, instead of launching it on reliable rockets until blue origin proves to be reliable? Companys use competitor products when it's beyond their own capacity all the time. See Google and Tesla both being major customers of nvidia despite both making their own TPUs.

LargeTomato 3y ago
> Why are people surprised by them not using blue origin? Blue origin is owned by JB and is de facto considered "amazon's rocket company". Even actual amazonians believe this. > Blue origin isn't scheduled to fly for some time yet. Due to schedule slips. Egregious schedule slips. The original plan was to launch the bulk of the satellites with Blue Origin. > Amazon already announced agreements with 2 other companies as well. Neither of those companies directly compete with Kuiper. Starlink and Kuiper do compete with each other. > Why would they want their Kuiper project to depend on the success of Blue Origin? It's not that Amazon intended for this to happen. Blue Origin is so incredibly far behind their deadlines that amazon's hand was forced. A decision was never made to state Kuiper on Blue. A decision was made to move away from blue because they cannot deliver on their promise. > See Google and Tesla both being major customers of nvidia despite both making their own TPUs. TPUs are not a core business of either player. They are used internally. There is a very meaningful difference between TPUs and a satellite Internet constellation.
- panick21_ 3y ago
  Do you have any evidence for the fact that Amazon initially wanted only Blue? Because even if Blue had managed orbit, doing the full constellation was never likely. Even with 3-4 companies and 4-5 different rockets working on it, they will likely not make FAA damage. The ULA Atlas 5 deal was the first one they signed.
panick21_ 3y ago