| Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos, is preparing to enter one of the most hotly contested arenas in the space industry: global broadband from low Earth orbit (LEO).
In a regulatory filing that caught many in the industry off guard, Blue Origin set forth plans for a network called TeraWave comprising more than 5,000 LEO satellites, paired with a medium Earth orbit (MEO) layer to deliver up to 6 terabits per second in point-to-point ground links.
The plan marks a sharp expansion for Blue Origin, which has until now focused on developing rockets, lunar landers and an in-space mobility vehicle platform called Blue Ring.
It's an ambitious program that raises immediate questions about whether launch capacity and the required technology will be ready at scale on Blue Origin's timeline.
The LEO satellites would use higher-frequency spectrum than rivals, making those links more susceptible to atmospheric interference, while the blistering speeds being promised from MEO hinge on emerging optical space-to-ground technology.
One industry executive privately said TeraWave is being assessed as a longer-term competitive threat that's potentially more plausible in the next decade than in the next few years.
"I am not convinced it's real," said Armand Musey, founder of advisory firm Summit Ridge Group, citing the slow pace of deployment for Amazon's 3,232-satellite LEO broadband constellation.
"There aren't enough launch vehicles. There are not even enough launch vehicles to get Amazon Leo launched on schedule."
Blue Origin disputes that view, pointing to the New Glenn rocket it has flown twice so far.
"We plan to fly the TeraWave constellation on our fleet of New Glenn rockets," Blue Origin spokesperson Stephanie Plucinsky told SpaceNews, though she didn't elaborate further.
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