In the coming satellite war, will Jeff Bezos find himself stuck on the launch pad?
Amazon has announced a deal with three suppliers, United Launch Alliance, Arianespace and its own company, Blue Origin, for up to 83 rocket launches of its Kuiper Systems internet satellites, ignoring Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the company that has truly revolutionized the aerospace industry by using economies of scale to bring down its costs.
By marking the cutting-edge company in his sector as his enemy by hiring competitors and a subsidiary of his own company Jeff Bezos has just written a recipe for disaster.
Let’s start with United Launch Alliance, which will carry out 38 launches using its as-yet unproven and often postponed Vulcan rocket: this is the company created by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, but which were overlooked recently by the world’s largest contractor, NASA, in favor of Space X.
Arianespace, which will be responsible for 18 launches, is the old European public conglomerate Arianespace with a rocket, Ariane 6, whose launch has also been repeatedly postponed.
The third company, which will carry out 12 launches , with an option for another 15, is Amazon’s very own Blue Origin, with just four launches carrying some very wealthy tourists, and which will do so with a rocket, the New Glenn, whose inaugural flight has too…
