Blue Origin enters the communications satellite competition head-on

The space company Blue Origin, founded by American billionaire Jeff Bezos, has announced an ambitious project to enter the communications satellite constellation market, currently dominated by SpaceX, the company of its rival Elon Musk. According to Reuters, Blue Origin plans to launch 5,408 satellites into low-Earth orbit, which will form a network dedicated to high-speed communications services for data centers, governments and the private sector. The deployment of the network, called TeraWave, is scheduled to begin in the last quarter of 2027, and the company claims that it will be able to offer "data speeds of up to 6 terabits per second, anywhere on Earth”.

• A network designed for the era of artificial intelligence

The speed announced by Blue Origin is extremely high compared to current consumer standards and is possible thanks to the use of optical communications between satellites. The TeraWave network is designed to serve about 100,000 customers, mainly organizations that manage massive volumes of data. The announcement comes at a time when the space industry is in an accelerated race to develop data centers in space, designed to support the growing demand for processing generated by large-scale artificial intelligence applications. On Earth, these needs involve huge energy and resource consumption, which makes moving part of the digital infrastructure into orbit attractive.

• Bezos versus Musk: two visions of the internet from space

TeraWave thus becomes the second large satellite constellation associated with Jeff Bezos, who is also the executive chairman of Amazon. In parallel, the company Amazon is developing the Project Kuiper (Amazon LEO) network, still in its early stages, which would include 3,200 satellites intended to provide internet for consumers and businesses. To date, about 180 Kuiper satellites are already in orbit. SpaceX's Starlink network is the most advanced globally, with about 10,000 satellites launched and more than six million customers in at least 140 countries. Starlink serves both individual users and companies, governments and national security agencies through its militarized version, Starshield. Elon Musk has repeatedly stated that SpaceX plans to build data centers in space to complement the Starlink infrastructure. Jeff Bezos, in turn, has estimated that such centers will become commonplace in orbit in the next 10-20 years.

• Global competition and geopolitical stakes

In addition to the rivalry between the American giants, China is accelerating the development of its own constellations of communications satellites, with the aim of competing with Starlink. According to Reuters, these networks have already proven essential for long-distance communications and in sensitive geopolitical contexts. In parallel, China is investing in reusable rockets capable of launching thousands of satellites at low cost - a model opened by SpaceX with the Falcon 9 rocket. For Blue Origin, a central role in implementing the TeraWave constellation will be played by the reusable New Glenn rocket, which has been launched twice so far and is considered essential for the project to proceed.

Unlike Starlink and Project Kuiper, TeraWave will not be accessible to individual consumers. The network is designed exclusively for institutional and commercial customers. "What makes TeraWave different? It is designed specifically for business customers," said Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin.