He angry party in progress between Blue Origin by Jeff Bezos and SpaceX by Elon Musk reached new levels of pettiness on Wednesday with letter presented by Amazon to the Federal Communications Commission on Musk’s it plans to expand its growing network of satellites.
“Whether it’s launching satellites with unlicensed antennas, launching unapproved rockets, building an unapproved launch tower, or reopening a factory in violation of a shelter order, SpaceX’s conduct and from other companies run by Musk makes it clear: the rules are for other people, ”the letter says. The document was written by C. Andrew Keisner, the lead attorney for Amazon’s subsidiary Kuiper Systems. longtime rival to Musk himself Starlink Project.
In the race to launch low-orbit satellites, Starlink is clearly at the forefront. The company has already started using its network of approximately 1,700 satellites to provide Internet connectivity tens of thousands of people worldwide via Starlink beta program, while Kuiper’s current plans are to launch its first satellites in 2023.
The driving force behind the current conflict is that Starlink wants to launch itself evenly month satellites in orbit before Kuiper even entered the gate. In May 2020, SpaceX applied to obtain a license with the FCC to launch another 30,000 satellites at altitudes even below their current configuration, in order to increase network capacity. Amazon he opposed shortly afterwards, telling the FCC that SpaceX’s plan to encircle Earth with satellites in two different configurations “was at odds with both commission rules and public policy.” Elon Musk sent Elon Mus, replied with a cheeky tweet, followed by the SpaceX file its own refutation with the FCC last week. The letter essentially mentioned Amazon’s terrible habit of dominating almost everything touches, saying Bezos’ complaints were nothing more than a “continuation of the efforts of Amazon’s family of companies to hinder competition.”
Smash drafted this week’s letter, in which Amazon described SpaceX’s response as “an overheated response to an uncontroversial argument,” adding that the company appeared to favor “misinformation, ad hominem attacks and the belief that it can influencing regulators through social media ”rather than, well, following the issue.
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“This road will take longer and annoy many, but it will surely lead to the same place,” the letter says. “The approach comes from a family gamebook to any regulator in the face of the unfortunate task of equitably applying its rules to SpaceX: not admitting anything, ignoring the rules whenever possible, and when all else fails, malign those who invoke them “.
In many ways, these supposed tactics may seem familiar to anyone who follows the legal issues chasing Musk’s fasti-lost person on Twitter but coming from a company known for using tax loopholes, deployment anti-utactical nions, i dangerous work conditions, D’Amazon the arguments seem more like an asinine cry than anything else.
We contacted Starlink and Kuiper for feedback on the presentation and will be updated here when we find out again.