It's well known that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have had disputes over the years. However, this hasn't prevented Amazon from striking a deal with SpaceX to launch a competitor to Starlink.

On Friday, the e-commerce giant announced that it had secured three rocket launches with SpaceX to assist in deploying Project Kuiper, Amazon's own satellite internet system.

This agreement is somewhat surprising because Amazon had already signed deals with Arianespace, Blue Origin, and United Launch to use over 70 rocket launches for deploying Project Kuiper. Amazon states that these deals are still in place for launching the majority of the Kuiper network, which will consist of over 3,200 satellites. Nonetheless, the company decided to secure additional launches with SpaceX to "provide even more capacity to support our deployment schedule."

"Project Kuiper has contracted three Falcon 9 launches, and these missions are targeted to lift off beginning in mid-2025," the business stated. Amazon also signed the agreement after a group of shareholders filed a lawsuit against the business in August for allegedly passing over SpaceX as a launch provider for Project Kuiper. The shareholders emphasised SpaceX's track record of delivering on-time launches for its Starlink satellite broadband infrastructure. Meanwhile, Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance, and Arianespace have all experienced delays in launching their next-generation rockets.

The delays were significant enough to postpone Amazon's initial attempts to launch two prototype Kuiper satellites. However, in October, the satellites were successfully deployed into Earth's orbit using a ULA Atlas V rocket. This marked a successful test of Kuiper's satellite internet technology.

Amazon plans to launch its first production Kuiper satellites into orbit in the first half of next year. Beta tests with select commercial customers will then begin later in 2024.

The goal of Project Kuiper is to provide high-speed broadband to users in rural and remote areas without reliable internet access. However, Amazon faces tough competition from SpaceX's Starlink, which already serves over 2 million customers with satellite download speeds that can reach 100Mbps or higher.