— Amazon just inked a deal with chief competitor and Elon Musk-helmed SpaceX to launch internet-beaming satellites — a move that comes even as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pursues his own space dreams with his own rocket company, Blue Origin, and as SpaceX builds its own internet constellation. While Musk and Bezos have notoriously been publicly competitive and have a history of openly sparring on social media, with Musk regularly making crude jokes about Bezos and Blue Origin, it is not uncommon for business rivals to team up in the world of rocket launches. Some Amazon satellites will still ride on a large rocket made by Blue Origin, dubbed the New Glenn. But it’s been delayed for years and will make its launch debut next year at the earliest. Amazon announced the deal in a news release Friday, saying the company has signed an agreement to launch its satellites on three SpaceX Falcon 9 launches, which are expected to begin as soon as mid-2025. Amazon is working to build a constellation of thousands of internet satellites, called Project Kuiper, that is planned to beam connectivity across the planet. It will compete directly with SpaceX’s Starlink service, which already has more than 5,000 satellites in orbit. Amazon is well behind its competitor. It has two prototype satellites, which were launched in October aboard a rocket built by United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The Jeff Bezos-founded company made headlines in April 2022 when it signed a contract worth billions of dollars to launch Kuiper satellites on 77 rockets built by Blue Origin — another Bezos-founded venture — as well as ULA and European launch provider Arianespace. But those initial contracts also spurred a shareholder lawsuit. Project Kuiper, Amazon's low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband initiative, is preparing to put its first two satellites into space during its "Protoflight" mission. Amazon