Jeff Bezos' empire is preparing for a frontal attack on Elon Musk's dominance in low-Earth orbit. The space company Blue Origin has officially lifted the curtain on its most ambitious project to date - the TeraWave satellite network. This is not just another internet provider, but a real technological torpedo, promising speeds of a staggering 6 Tbps, which is thousands of times faster than the current capabilities of Starlink.
The interesting thing about Bezos' strategy is the clear division of the market. While his other company Amazon is developing Project Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) for the mass consumer, TeraWave is aimed exclusively at the “heavy artillery“ - huge corporations, data centers and government structures. The project envisages the construction of an impressive constellation of 5408 satellites. Of these, 5280 will operate in low Earth orbit (LEO) via radio links with speeds of up to 144 Gbps, and the “icing on the cake“ are 128 satellites in medium orbit (MEO), using laser optical channels to achieve the full capacity of 6 terabits per second.
Unlike mass satellite internet, which often suffers from asymmetry, TeraWave relies on absolutely identical speeds for uploading and downloading data. This is critically important for cloud services and real-time operations, where delays can cost millions. The first “space routers” Blue Origin's satellites will take to the skies in late 2027, likely to be launched by the New Glenn heavy-lift rocket, which has already recorded successful missions in the past year.
The move makes Bezos the only player attacking SpaceX on two fronts at once - through Leo for households and TeraWave for businesses. While Starlink is currently planning a timid increase in speeds to 1 Gbps, Blue Origin's bid for a "terabit era" sounds like a challenge that could completely redraw the map of global connectivity. The battle for space is no longer just about rockets, but about who will control the information highways above our heads.