Investing in Space: Amazon plays catch-up with SpaceX in satellite internet race

Last month, the number of Amazon's internet-beaming Kuiper satellites in orbit barely hit three digits. By last week, the world's U.S. largest retailer was snatching its first contract to supply in-flight WiFi to an airline — many of which have already contracted to employ the rival services of SpaceX's Starlink mega-constellation.

There was always bound to be a first airline to make the jump to Amazon's low Earth orbit satellite network and test out Project Kuiper's pledge of fast, reliable connectivity. And JetBlue's decision to tap the services on select aircraft starting in 2027 and improve on its Fly-fi in-flight WiFi perks still leaves Amazon with a wide gap to bridge in the catch-up with Starlink, whose airline customers include the likes of Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines and Air France.

But Amazon's fledgling triumph injects a fresh challenge in the satellite-powered internet market where SpaceX's Starlink had increasingly emerged as a dominant player, despite some competition from Eutelsat's OneWeb, China's SpaceSat and Viasat. To be sure, Amazon's Project Kuiper constellation is still in its early days, with a mere 102 satellites in orbit — a drop in the sea compared with the 1,600 units the Federal Communications Commission requires to be deployed by July 2026 and the 3,236 that Jeff Bezos' company targets by July 2029. Kuiper's numbers of active satellites dim even further, compared with the 8,393 satellites that Starlink had in orbit as of Sept. 8, out of 12,000 spacecraft the company has been permitted to launch by the FCC under an initial approval.

Suffice to say, Musk's Starlink has the starting edge on scale, helped along by SpaceX's considerable launch capacity. The company had impressively notched 100 Falcon 9 launches by the middle of August, with 72 of these spaceflights carrying Starlink satellites. Meanwhile, it was only in January this year that Bezos' Blue Origin undertook the maiden flight of the heavy-lift New Glenn, which was nonetheless commissioned for 12 Kuiper launches — with an option for another 15 — all the way back in 2022.

In the interim, Amazon's first Kuiper batches reached low orbit courtesy of the services of other commercial providers, such as United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket and — perhaps ironically, given Musk and Bezos' previous satellite feud — Space X's Falcon 9. ArianeSpace also has a contract to perform 18 Kuiper launches, of which 16 to be carried out by an "advanced version" of the Ariane 64.

There's a reason why the satellite internet provision market is heating up. Global satellite operators have slated roughly 70,000 LEO satellite plans due to launch between 2025 and 2031, according to a March report from Goldman Sachs, whose Head of Greater China Technology Research Allen Chang at the time anticipates the "mainstream use case for satellite internet technology to be the upcoming 6G communications." While the commercial rollout of 6G isn't expected for at least another five years, a ramp-up of LEO satellite services is likely to benefit the roughly 2.5 billion of people - or 30.5% of the world's population — who lack internet access, along with users in remote, war-torn or sparsely populated regions.

SpaceX isn't sitting idle as Amazon prepares to enter the arena and supply customer services by late 2025. Just this week, the company agreed a roughly $17 billion deal to buy Echostar's wireless spectrum licenses and bolster Starlink's 5G business, with SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell hailing the purchase on social media as another step "to advance our mission to end mobile dead zones everywhere on Earth!"

Fate of costly SLS rocket under question — As NASA's tempestuous budget is about to be decided over the coming weeks, attention is turning to whether the cost-heavy SLS rocket — whose launches command a $4-billion price tag — will make the cut. — Ars Technica

Space travel can expedite stem cell aging, study finds — Spaceflight can lead to astronauts' bones losing density and prompt their genes to alter expression, with research now suggesting time spent in space accelerates aging tenfold. — NBC News

NASA rover finds possible signs of life on Mars — A sample collected by NASA's Perseverance rover from the "Cheyava Falls" rock revealed biosignatures, which could hint at potential past life on the red plant. — Space & Defense

Superfast electrons' solar origins unveiled — The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter has pinpointed two types of solar energetic electrons (SEE) with different sources in solar flares and coronal mass ejections. — European Space Agency

U.S. losing space race to China because of Starship lags: Former NASA head — Former NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said the U.S. is falling behind Beijing in the space race because of ongoing delays with SpaceX's Starship, which has been selected as a central part of the Artemis program to return U.S. astronauts to the Moon. — The Independent

NASA targets multiple crewed space stations post-ISS era — NASA has put forward proposals for future manned stations followed the planned retirement of the International Space Station at the end of the decade. — Extreme Tech

Space Force to deploy small satellites for GEO comms — The U.S. Space Force is now turning to small geostationary communications satellites under the Protected Tactical Satcom-Global (PTS-G) program. — Space News

SpaceX Dragon capsule nudges ISS farther from Earth — A SpaceX Drago cargo capsule has boosted the International Space Station away from Earth, completing a key test. Visiting cargo spacecraft — historically Russia's Progress spacecraft — typically push the ISS higher from the Earth's orbit periodically, when the facility naturally falls back to the planet. — Space.com

NASA bars Chinese nationals from working on its space programs — NASA had restricted Chinese citizens with U.S. visas from working on the space agency's programs, amid a heating race between the two countries to reach the Moon. — Bloomberg

SpaceX buys EchoStar's wireless spectrum licenses — SpaceX will procure EchoStar's wireless spectrum licenses in a $17 billion deal set to serve the expansion of the Starlink satellite network's 5G connectivity abilities. — Reuters  

SpaceTech Astradyne raises 2 million euros for space solar panels — Italy's Astradyne clinched 2 million euros ($2.34 million) in a seed investment round led by Primo Capital through its Primo Space fund for the development of ultralight solar panels designed for use in space. — EU-Startups.com

NordSpace to attempt Taiga launch by mid-September — NordSpace is hoping to achieve Canada's first commercial space launch with the take-off of the Taiga rocket by the middle of this month. The company previously failed to lift off the rocket in August. — VOCM

Sept. 11 — Roscosmos' Soyuz 2.1A to head out from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, with supplies for the International Space Station

Sept. 12 — Roscosmos' Soyuz 2.1B to depart Plesetsk, Russia, with the Glonass-K1  navigation satellite

Sept. 13 — SpaceX's Falcon 9 to launch with Starlink satellites out of California

Sept. 14 — SpaceX's Falcon 9 to take off from Florida with the Cygnus NG-23 spacecraft with supplies to the International Space Station 

Sept. 15 — China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation's Long March 2C to leave with an unknown payload out of Jiuquan, China

Sept. 17 — SpaceX's Falcon 9 to depart with Starlink satellites out of California