The statement follows a tweet from Musk, the richest person according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The two richest men in the world hold it out in front of US regulators over heavenly real estate for their satellite fleets.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to run Starlink communications satellites at a lower orbit than originally planned.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. says the move will risk interference and collisions with its planned Kuiper satellites, which, like Starlink, are designed to send Internet service from space.
A dispute that would normally be limited to regulatory applications is spreading in the public view, in a splash that shows off the big personalities while billionaires chase dreams into the air.
“It’s SpaceX’s proposed changes that could hamper competition between satellite systems,” Amazon tweeted from its official news account on Tuesday. “It’s clearly in SpaceX’s interest to stifle competition in the cradle if they can, but it’s certainly not in the public interest.”
Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. says the move will risk interference and collisions with its planned Kuiper satellites, which, like Starlink, are designed to send Internet service from space.
The statement follows a tweet from Musk, the richest person according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“It does not serve the public to urge Starlink today for an Amazon satellite system that has been out of service for at most a few years,” Musk said in a tweeted response to the coverage by CNBC journalist Michael Sheetz.
Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has launched more than 1,000 satellites for its Starlink Internet service, signing early customers in the US, UK and Canada. Amazon received FCC approval last year for a fleet of 3,236 satellites and has none yet.
Amazon had earlier called on the FCC to reject SpaceX’s request for lower orbits. It is said that the change would place SpaceX satellites in the middle of the Kuiper orbits, according to the agency’s documentation.
SpaceX has pushed the calls back to the FCC, saying the plans will not increase the interference for Amazon’s ’emerging plans’.
A lower lane allows faster internet service because the signal does not move that far. SpaceX told the FCC that the satellites closer to Earth reduce the risk of space debris because they would fall faster than a higher spacecraft.
SpaceX eventually plans to operate about 12,000 satellites and has gained FCC authorization for about 4,400 birds, including 1,584 at 550 kilometers – where its satellites currently orbit. The company is seeking permission to place another 2,824 satellites at the same approximate altitude, rather than twice as high as originally proposed.
(Except for the headline, this story was not processed by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)