Early Monday morning, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from its original launch site in Florida. Remarkably, it was SpaceX’s 100th launch of the year.
Perhaps even more notable was the rocket’s payload: two-dozen Project Kuiper satellites, which were dispensed into low-Earth orbit on target. This was SpaceX’s second launch of satellites for Amazon, which is developing a constellation to deliver low-latency broadband Internet around the world. SpaceX, then, just launched a direct competitor to its Starlink network into orbit. And it was for the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, who owns a rocket company of his own in Blue Origin.
So how did it come to this—Bezos and Elon Musk, competitors in so many ways, working together in space?
Most obvious answer: SpaceX is a launch business
First and foremost, one of SpaceX’s two core businesses is launching rockets. (The other is its Starlink Internet service). SpaceX sells launch services to all comers and typically offers the lowest price per kilogram to orbit.
By reusing the first stage of the Falcon 9, SpaceX has cracked the code on rapid, reliable launch service. Launch used to be expensive and rare, and it would take years to get manifested onto a rocket. Because the Falcon 9 now flies so frequently, it provides a relatively fast way to get a payload into space.
SpaceX also has proven that it is willing to launch competitors. Between December 2022 and October 2024, SpaceX launched four batches of satellites for OneWeb, another broadband Internet competitor. AST SpaceMobile has purchased multiple launches from SpaceX for its direct-to-device satellites. The Falcon 9 rocket has also launched two Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station for Northrop Grumman, a direct competitor to its Cargo Dragon vehicle.
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