Blue Origin’s TeraWave to Deliver 6Tbps Satellite Internet
▼ Summary
– Blue Origin has announced a new satellite internet network called TeraWave, designed for enterprise and government customers with speeds up to 6Tbps.
– The TeraWave constellation will consist of 5,280 low-Earth orbit satellites and 128 medium-Earth orbit satellites, with the first deployment planned for late 2027.
– The network will use RF connectivity in low-Earth orbit for 144 Gbps speeds and optical links in medium-Earth orbit to achieve its maximum 6Tbps capability.
– This announcement follows Amazon’s separate consumer-focused Leo satellite network, positioning both Bezos-affiliated companies as potential competitors to SpaceX’s Starlink.
– The TeraWave project represents Blue Origin’s expansion into satellite manufacturing and operation, adding to its recent achievements like launching the New Glenn rocket.
Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Jeff Bezos, has unveiled plans for a new high-capacity satellite internet network named TeraWave. This ambitious system is designed to deliver staggering data speeds of up to 6 terabits per second (Tbps), targeting enterprise, government, and data center clients rather than the general consumer market. The network aims to integrate with existing infrastructure, providing robust connectivity to remote and challenging locations.
The proposed constellation involves a two-tiered architecture. Blue Origin intends to deploy 5,280 satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) alongside 128 satellites in medium-Earth orbit (MEO). The initial satellites are scheduled for launch starting in late 2027, though the timeline for completing the full network remains unspecified. This hybrid approach utilizes different technologies for each orbital layer. The LEO satellites will employ radio frequency (RF) connectivity with a maximum speed of 144 Gbps. In contrast, the MEO satellites will leverage optical inter-satellite links, which are responsible for achieving the headline-grabbing 6 Tbps data transfer capability.
For perspective, SpaceX’s established Starlink service currently offers maximum speeds around 400 Mbps for consumers, with future upgrades aiming for 1 Gbps. TeraWave’s announced speeds represent a monumental leap, squarely focusing on high-bandwidth commercial and institutional needs. According to the project’s website, “TeraWave adds a space-based layer to your existing network infrastructure, providing connectivity to locations unreachable by traditional methods.”
This announcement follows another major satellite initiative from Bezos’s portfolio. Just months earlier, Amazon rebranded its consumer-focused broadband network, Project Kuiper, now called Leo. That constellation will eventually consist of roughly 3,000 LEO satellites offering conventional broadband speeds. While both networks could collectively challenge Starlink’s market dominance, they serve distinctly different customer bases. Starlink itself has expanded beyond residential users to serve commercial aviation and government contracts, boasting over nine million customers.
Blue Origin clarified its strategic focus in a statement, noting, “We identified an unmet need with customers who were seeking enterprise-grade internet access with higher speeds, symmetrical upload/download speeds, more redundancy, and rapid scalability for their networks. TeraWave solves for these problems.”
The TeraWave project marks a significant expansion for Blue Origin as it evolves from a space tourism company into a diversified aerospace firm. Best known for its suborbital New Shepard rocket, the company has recently achieved critical milestones. In 2025, it successfully launched its powerful New Glenn heavy-lift rocket twice, recovering the booster on its second flight and carrying its first commercial payload for NASA. The company plans a third New Glenn launch this year to send a robotic lander to the Moon. With the TeraWave initiative, Blue Origin is poised to add satellite manufacturing and network operations to its growing suite of space capabilities.
(Source: TechCrunch)
