Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in billionaire space race as Amazon and SpaceX face off

Billionaire tycoons Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are on a collision course in space.

Bezos’s Amazon has bought up access to 83 rockets in a bid to provide internet everywhere on the planet.

Musk’s SpaceX company has already launched thousands of satellites into orbit as part of its similar Starlink project and is providing services to war-torn Ukraine.

Now Amazon is looking to speed up the launch of its £8billion network of 3,236 satellites to deliver a space-based internet service.

The online giant’s splurge of space within every medium to heavy-launch rocket, except those operated by Musk’s SpaceX firm, is for their plan dubbed Project Kuiper.

It has signed contracts for dozens of launches on rockets.

Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president for devices and services, said: “These launch agreements reflect our incredible commitment and belief in Project Kuiper and we’re proud to be working with such an impressive lineup of partners to deliver on our mission.

“We still have lots of work ahead but the team has continued to hit milestone after milestone across every aspect of our satellite system.”

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The mega deals put Amazon on course to have half of Project Kuiper’s satellites in orbit by 2026 and the rest by 2029.

But the plans for satellites in low-Earth orbit have worried boffins who have called for stricter rules.

In February, Nasa said it “has concerns with the potential for a significant increase in the frequency of conjunction events and possible impacts to Nasa’s science and human spaceflight missions.”

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