By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin on Wednesday announced a plan to deploy 5,408 satellites in space for a communications network that will serve data centers, governments and businesses, jumping into a satellite constellation market dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Deployment of satellites is planned to begin in the last quarter of 2027, Blue Origin said, adding the network is designed to have "data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth."
That speed,
possible with the satellites' planned optical communications, is extreme by consumer standards and would make the network key for data processing and large-scale government programs. Blue Origin said the network is meant to serve a maximum of roughly 100,000 customers.
The reveal of TeraWave coincides with a space industry rush to build data centers in space that can meet the soaring demand for large-scale AI data processing, which on Earth requires immense energy and resources as adoption of the technology expands.
The planned network adds another satellite constellation linked to Bezos, executive chairman of Amazon, which is in an early phase of deploying Leo - a network formerly called Project Kuiper involving 3,200 satellites providing internet to consumers and businesses.
Musk's Starlink network of roughly 10,000 satellites is farthest ahead in a global push to put internet infrastructure in space, where swarms of low-orbiting satellites offer more security and higher connection speeds than traditional, unitary satellites farther out in space.
(Editing by Franklin Paul, Kirsten Donovan)
