Elon Musk has criticised Jeff Bezos, a fellow centivillionaire and space cowboy, for filing lawsuits against SpaceX.
Blue Origin, a Bezos-owned space company sued NASA earlier this month after it lost a crucial government contract to send astronauts to the Moon to SpaceX. SpaceX's work on the project has been halted by this lawsuit. Amazon is now requesting the Federal Communications Commission to reject SpaceX's plans to launch a second cluster of satellites for its satellite internet service Starlink.
Musk responded to the story on the second complaint by tweeting: Turns out Besos [sic] has retired to pursue a full time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX
Amazon's recent complaint appears to not be a formal lawsuit, but rather a protest letter. It is not that Amazon does not want SpaceX's Starlink satellite launches to continue, but rather that it feels the company should be more clear about its intentions.
Starlink currently relies on approximately 1,740 low-earth orbit satellites to power its operations. These satellites serve around 90,000. SpaceX is preparing to launch a tranche 30,000 second-generation satellites in order to improve its service. The FCC must be informed where the satellites will be located around the Earth. Amazon is complaining that SpaceX wants the FCC approval to launch two completely different orbital configurations.
SpaceX's unusual approach to applying for two configurations that are mutually exclusive is against both the Commissions rules as well as public policy. We urge the Commission not to approve this amendment, writes Mariah D. Shuman, corporate counsel at Amazon subsidiary Kuiper Systems.
Shuman claims that two configurations can double the technical effort required by other operators, such as Amazons Kuiper System. This operator has yet to launch any satellites. These parties will need to examine interference and orbital debris concerns that are raised by two different satellite configurations.
Shumans prefers that SpaceX choose a plan and follow it. This is because approving two configurations allows future satellite operators to hedge their bets and creates more work for the whole industry. She concludes that the Commission should enforce its rules and dismiss SpaceX's Amendment. SpaceX should be invited to submit its amended after agreeing on a single configuration of its Gen2 System.
