Earlier this year Amazon announced the largest commercial launch deal in history, selecting three partners to launch its Project Kuiper satellite deployment.
Given the rocky relationship between the retail giant and SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company was not among the three different rocket companies selected to launch Amazon’s Starlink-competing satellites.
However according to one Amazon executive, they may still turn to SpaceX to launch their satellites into low-earth orbit.
That executive is Amazon Senior Vice President of Devices and Services Dave Limp, who said during a podcast with The Washington Post this week that the company “would be crazy not to” ask SpaceX for help “given their track record.”
Would Amazon ever talk to SpaceX about providing launch services for its Kuiper satellite constellation? "Yes," Dave Limp, Amazon Sr VP for devices & services, tells a gutsy @wapodavenport during Washington Post webcast. "You'd be crazy not to, given their track record."
— Irene Klotz (@Free_Space) October 27, 2022
Given their aforementioned rocky relationship, it seems unlikely that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would ask Elon Musk for help, but stranger things have happened.
Amazon’s first launch still hasn’t happened, and won’t for a while yet as the company hasn’t announced an official launch date, but they say it will happen “in early 2023.”
The company will use United Launch Alliance (ULA) for that first launch, with their Vulcan Centaur rocket carrying just two prototype satellites into orbit.
Through its previously announced deal Amazon has secured up to 92 “heavy-lift” launches from Arianespace, Blue Origin, and ULA.
