<\/p>\n
Blue Origin, the rocket company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says it will launch more than 5,400 satellites to create a new communications network.<\/p>\n
Named TeraWave, it will offer continuous internet access around the world, with the ability to move large amounts of data much more quickly than rival services.<\/p>\n
But even after launching thousands of satellites, Blue Origin would still have far fewer in orbit than Elon Musk’s Starlink, which currently dominates the satellite internet market.<\/p>\n
Starlink – part of Musk’s rocket firm SpaceX – also offers internet and phone services to individual customers, while Blue Origin says TeraWave will be focused on data centres, businesses and governments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Blue Origin said its network, at its fastest, would allow upload and download speeds of as much as 6 terabits per second, much faster than rival commercial satellite services currently offer.<\/p>\n
Another competitor to TeraWave is Amazon, the technology giant that made Bezos a multi-billionaire. He is still Amazon’s executive chairman after stepping down in 2021 as its chief executive.<\/p>\n
Amazon’s satellite venture is called Leo. While it currently has only 80 satellites in orbit, having launched dozens more just last week, it plans to have more than 3,000 in orbit.<\/p>\n
Like Starlink, Amazon is also more focused on the general public than businesses and governments, pitching Leo as a way to offer high-speed internet access globally. It has not said when all of the Leo satellites will be in orbit.<\/p>\n
Blue Origin said it will start launching its TeraWave satellites by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n
In November, the company successfully landed a rocket booster<\/a> on a floating platform for the first time.<\/p>\n Only SpaceX had previously accomplished this feat.<\/p>\n