Email There’s nothing like friendly competition, especially in business, and it seems like Elon Musk is being a good sport by helping out his long-time rival Jeff Bezos. According to TechCrunch, Amazon’s race to challenge SpaceX in orbit is getting a helping hand from its chief competitor: SpaceX, which will launch the next batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet satellites skyward on Wednesday. A flock of 24 Kuiper internet satellites will ride aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket before dawn. The mission, dubbed KF-01, has a 27-minute launch window that opens at 2:18 a.m. ET and will lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is an initiative to build a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation to deliver high-speed broadband internet globally, especially to underserved and remote regions. Launched in 2019, the project received FCC approval in 2020 to deploy 3,236 satellites. READ: Amazon launches 27 Kuiper rockets, rivaling Elon Musk’s Starlink (April 30, 2025) Amazon successfully launched two prototype satellites—KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2—in October 2023 aboard a ULA Atlas V rocket. These prototypes validated key technologies, including deorbiting systems and high-speed optical inter-satellite links (OISL). By mid-2025, Amazon had launched 54 production satellites across two missions, and a third mission via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 was scheduled for July 2025. Amazon has secured launch contracts for up to 83 missions with ULA, Arianespace, Blue Origin, and SpaceX—marking the largest commercial satellite launch deal in history. Project Kuiper integrates LEO satellites with custom-built ground terminals and AWS-powered networking infrastructure. The FCC requires Amazon to deploy at least 1,618 satellites by July 2026 to maintain its license. With public beta service expected by late 2025, Project Kuiper is Amazon’s answer to SpaceX’s Starlink, aiming to bring affordable, reliable internet access worldwide and support applications in cloud computing, IoT, and edge connectivity across consumer, commercial, and government sectors. Amazon and SpaceX, despite being competitors in satellite internet with Project Kuiper and Starlink respectively, have formed a pragmatic partnership. Amazon has contracted SpaceX to launch three Falcon 9 missions to deploy Kuiper satellites, starting in mid-2025. This collaboration highlights the complex dynamics in the space industry where rivals collaborate to meet business goals efficiently.