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SpaceX could soon face a significant challenge in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) as Jeff Bezos looks to rival Elon Musk's satellite dominance with a secret space project of his own, launching the initial stages of Amazon Leo's broadband network.
While it remains still a long way off SpaceX's nearly 10,000-strong satellite line up – with the recent launch of 29 satellites bringing Amazon's total to 'just' 390 – this recent addition serves as a major step forward in the race for dominance over the skies.
As reported by the Independent, Amazon Leo claims that once everything is up and running it will have the world's fastest space internet service, beating out what Starlink currently offers even if the scale isn't quite as large — and much of that success relies on the viability of the Leo Ultra antenna.
Bezos' plans did suffer slightly a few weeks ago after the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded in a fiery blaze during a test launch, with the Amazon co-founder promising that rebuilds will happen and the company will 'get back to flying' soon enough.
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If everything goes ahead as planned, however, then SpaceX could have real competition on its hands, with Amazon outlining a timeline that would include 3,232 satellites within Leo's first generation launch, with an additional 4,504 coming in the second generation that follows.
This will fundamentally shift the internet industry going forward, regardless of who wins out in the end, as not only will competition hypothetically drive prices down but it will also provide a potentially better service over a shorter period of time as the two companies battle it out to see who emerges on top.
Musk, for example, showed off the potential for Starlink to provide a connection that's fast and stable enough to stream games while flying on a plane, and space internet services could genuinely be game-changing for anyone currently living in more remote areas.
Amazon will have to offer something pretty special – or significantly cheaper – to entice the more than 12 million customers across 150 different countries currently signed up to Starlink, and considering the pace that Musk's company is going at right now it might be a struggle for Bezos to keep up.
Regular customers can't currently test out Amazon Leo's services at the time of writing, however, with the service only being available to specific businesses, including Hunt Energy Network and JetBlue.
