Amazon.com Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos-backed commercial space flight company Blue Origin has entered the space-based internet service sector with the new "TeraWave" service set to take on Elon Musk's internet provider Starlink.
6 TBPS Speeds, 2027 Deployment
In an official statement released on Wednesday, Blue Origin announced the "TeraWave" service aimed at enterprise-grade customers, as well as data center and government users, by providing "reliable connectivity for critical operations."
The TeraWave constellation would comprise 5,408 low and medium-Earth orbit satellites, with deployments of the constellation beginning in fourth-quarter 2027, the company said, adding that customers would be able to access speeds of up to 6 TBPS (Terabit per second) via the 128 MEO satellites, as well as speeds of up to 144 GBPS (Gigabits per second) through the 5,280 LEO satellites.
Elon Musk Reacts
Reacting to the news, SpaceX CEO Musk shared that the Starlink service will still have the upper hand when it comes to data speeds. "Starlink space to ground laser links will exceed this," Musk said in a post on the social media platform X on Wednesday.
Starlink space to ground laser links will exceed this
The news comes as Starlink has been in the spotlight as Musk faced off against Ryanair Holdings PLC(NASDAQ:RYAAY) CEO, Michael O’Leary,following the latter's comments about not installing Starlink on flights, citing fuel drag and installation costs.
SpaceX's VP of Starlink Engineering, Michael Nicolls, also shared that compared to legacy Wi-Fi providers on flights, Starlink terminals cause a 0.3% increase in fuel consumption on flights.
Qatar Airways also recently announced it would be offering Starlink Wi-Fi on the 787-800 Dreamliner aircraft, in a first-of-its-kind move, while also announcing that the airline’s entire Airbus SE(OTC:EADSF) (OTC:EADSY) A350 aircraft fleet will also offer Starlink.
Jeff Bezos Vs Elon Musk
Meanwhile, Musk called Bezos a "copycat" last year as the latter unveiled the "Project Prometheus" initiative, touting it as an alternative to Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI. Project Prometheus will reportedly work on creating AI tools tailored for the automotive, space, robotics, scientific research and other sectors.
With TeraWave, Musk and Bezos will face off in yet another sector after Space, Artificial Intelligence and automotive, as Bezos is also backing Slate Auto, an EV maker focused on making an affordable EV pickup truck.
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