Musk’s Tweet Spells Bezos Name Wrong, Bezos Protests SpaceX

The SpaceX CEO criticized Bezos in a tweet on Friday, saying it 'turns out Besos [sic] retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX.' The tweet spelled his name incorrectly. It is unclear if this was human error or intentional.

Wednesday of this week, Kuiper Systems, an Amazon subsidiary, filed a protest with the FCC to block SpaceX from launching more Starlink satellites. Kuiper is also busy at work making internet satellites to compete with Starlink. Kuiper’s filing questions the plans SpaceX has, saying that it goes against FCC’s rules.

'The SpaceX Amendment proposes two different configurations for the nearly 30,000 satellites of its Gen2 System, each of which arranges these satellites along very different orbital parameters,' Mariah Dodson Shuman, corporate counsel for Kuiper Systems, wrote in the document.

'SpaceX's novel approach of applying for two mutually exclusive configurations is at odds with both the Commission's rules and public policy and we urge the Commission to dismiss this amendment.' 

This complaint follows another Bezos launched against SpaceX, in which he sued NASA for awarding Musk’s SpaceX a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract earlier in the year, claiming that it was awarded unfairly.

Kuiper Systems has been around since 2018, obtaining approval from the FCC in July 2020 to build a constellation of 3,236 satellites. The satellites could position Amazon as a global ISP provider, however they have yet to launch any devices into orbit.

SpaceX has launched 1,700 Starlink internet satellites into orbit, and was seeking to improve coverage to it’s 100,000 existing customers when it petitioned the FCC for approval to operate a second-generation Starlink network of nearly 30,000 satellites. The FCC filing made by Kuiper states that SpaceX is not clear about its new plans. However, SpaceX's filing states it plans to use one configuration when creating the satellite constellation, with the second acting as a backup.

Amazon is urging the FCC to dismiss the request, stating that relaxing rules encourages not only SpaceX, but other companies to seek clearance for 'speculative' applications.

FMI: www.blueorigin.com, www.spacex.com, www.nasa.gov