Amazon turns to Jeff Bezos’ other company for heavy lifting

Meanwhile, in French Guiana, the European Ariane 6 rocket has launched two missions dedicated to Amazon Leo, each with 32 satellites. Amazon has sent the next group of satellites to French Guiana to launch Ariane 6, which will start the upgrade of the payload.

Amazon originally bought the starters for the largest Western rocket available except for SpaceX’s Falcon 9. The only rocket in Amazon’s stable with a history of flight was ULA’s Atlas V, with the remaining starter numbers due to retirement. The delays to Vulcan, Ariane 6, and New Glenn were not initially a concern for Amazon, which was struggling to expand its satellite production at a factory in Kirkland, Washington. Things changed last year, when the Amazon’s production of satellites outstripped the availability of rockets to put them into space.

Amazon abandoned the option of “anyone but SpaceX” in 2023 after a lawsuit by shareholders accusing founder Jeff Bezos and the board of directors of breaching their “trustworthy duty” by not considering SpaceX as a way to build the Amazon Leo satellites. Prosecutors in the lawsuit claim that Amazon never considered the Falcon 9 because of a heated argument between Bezos and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

Amazon bowed to the claims and announced a partnership with SpaceX for three Falcon 9 missions, which flew last year. Amazon has acquired 10 Falcon 9 missions since then, but none have yet flown.

With Blue Origin’s New Glenn soon to fly its first mission to Amazon, Arianespace’s Ariane 6 on the ground, and the prospect of the launch of the Falcon 9 on the horizon, Amazon may have turned the corner to solve its rocket problem.

If that’s the case, the competition for more funding to SpaceX’s Starlink project, which is the most popular in the satellite broadband market, could be close. However, Starlink has the opportunity to launch cheap and reliable satellites on the Falcon 9. SpaceX’s internal costs for the launch of the Falcon 9 are thought to be close to $ 15 million, a fifth of the $ 74 million SpaceX pays external customers such as Amazon for dedicated flights.