Amazon signs rocket deal with Blue Origin, Arianespace, ULA for Project Kuiper internet satellites (cnbc.com)

First I've heard of this. Looks like Elon and Starlink are going to have competition. It's also funny that Amazon isn't using SpaceX for launches.

Why would Amazon use SpaceX for this?

Sweet Kitten Feet said:

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Why would Amazon use SpaceX for this?

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Cheapest ride to space.

Amazon's fiduciary duty to its shareholders should trump (no pun intended) Bezos' personal dislike of Musk. After all, Bezos does not own Amazon. He's not even the CEO anymore, is he?

And buying rides on Blue Origin may create all kinds of conflicts of interest.

You know SpaceX and Musk have Starlink already, right? This seems like a direct competitor. I would not expect SpaceX to enable Amazon's penetration into this market.

Aren't SpaceX and Starlink separate entities?

The other way of looking at it, if you're Bezos and if SpaceX is in fact the cheapest ride to space, is that Bezos would be allowing Musk to underwrite Kuiper.

Perhaps the real reason for not using SpaceX is that the launch vehicle folks get to peak under the hood of the payloads. Amazon almost certainly doesn't want SpaceX to see what's inside the Kuiper satellites.

Sweet Kitten Feet said:

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You know SpaceX and Musk have Starlink already, right? This seems like a direct competitor. I would not expect SpaceX to enable Amazon's penetration into this market.

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Well, SpaceX has already started launch services for OneWeb which is another competitor to satellite based network services, after launches with Roscosmos hit a war-based stumbling block last month.