SpaceX and Amazon: A Revolutionary Partnership for the Skies!

Amazon.com Inc. has secured a deal with rival SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, for three launches of the Falcon 9 rocket. This agreement will provide Amazon with more capacity to successfully deploy their internet-from-space satellites into orbit.

The deal, which Amazon announced on its website Friday, means the e-commerce and cloud services giant is relying in part on its main rival to get its own constellation of satellites into orbit. Falcon 9 launches are scheduled to begin in mid-2025.

SpaceX’s Starlink already has about 5,000 satellites that provide Internet service from low Earth orbit. Amazon’s own Project Kuiper, which aims for a similar business model, recently launched the first two test satellites of a planned constellation of 3,236 satellites. Its goal is to start beta testing with business customers in the second half of next year.

SpaceX did not immediately return an emailed request for comment. But X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, Musk wrote in a message: “SpaceX is launching competing satellite systems without favoring its own satellites. Honestly.”

Amazon had previously hoped to launch its first satellites as early as the fourth quarter of 2022, before a series of testing glitches and other problems with its launch partners delayed the flights.

In 2022, Amazon announced a deal with three launch providers, United Launch Alliance, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin LLC and Arianespace, for at least 68 launches (and possibly as many as 83) of the company’s rockets to get the bulk. Project Kuiper constellation to orbit. This contract is based on newly developed rockets that have not yet flown into space and have suffered numerous delays.

In a separate deal, ULA’s older, flight-proven Atlas V rocket carried Amazon’s first two satellites into orbit in October. The company has eight launches left on the rocket, which is being phased out.

Earlier this year, the pension fund sued Bezos, Amazon’s board members and the company itself, alleging that Amazon had not considered using reliable SpaceX rockets for Kuiper launches in part because of the rivalry between Bezos and Musk. That choice led to more expensive rocket launches and delays in the project as Blue Origin and other launch partners faced unexpected technical challenges with the Amazon-trusted spacecraft, according to a complaint by the Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Fund. The company said at the time that the claims were unfounded.