Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk often takes potshots at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The two billionaires with similar space ambitions are now sparring over satellite internet.

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Amazon had recently requested the US Federal Communications Commission to dismiss the proposed changes by SpaceX to its Starlink satellite network, to which the company replied that Amazon and its network of companies had spent more time on litigation against SpaceX than actual development.

"Filing legal actions against SpaceX is *actually* his full-time job," Musk tweeted in response.

SpaceX had filed a Starlink amendment with the FCC on August 19 for the next generation of its satellite network.

While SpaceX is known for its rockets and trips to space, the company will be heavily relying on the revenue from its satellite network to stay afloat for future development, which includes a possible colony on Mars.

The company has already launched thousands of satellites and managed to get 100,000 customers spread across 14 countries even though it is still in beta. SpaceX has reportedly also received over half a million deposits for future installations by customers across the world. Each deposit costs $100.

Gen2 of the satellite network will see the company put over 30,000 satellites in a low-earth-orbit.

But SpaceX is not the only company exploring satellite broadband. UK-based One Web, which is also backed by Bharti Airtel, and Amazon's own Kuiper Project are competing to enter the sector as well. But SpaceX is far ahead of them in terms of deployment and technology.

Amazon sought to get the amendment by SpaceX dismissed over the violations of FCC rules.

“By leaving nearly every major detail unsettled — such as altitude, inclination, and even the total number of satellites — SpaceX’s application fails every test,” Amazon’s Kuiper corporate counsel Mariah Dodson Shuman wrote on August 25.

“The Commission should recognize this delay tactic for what it is — a continuation of efforts by the Amazon family of companies to hinder competitors to compensate for Amazon’s failure to make progress of its own,” wrote David Goldman, Director of Satellite Policy at SpaceX, in response to Amazon's filings.

Goldman also highlighted how Amazon itself had not yet responded to queries from the FCC about its network.

“While Amazon has waited 15 months to explain how its system works, it has lodged objections to SpaceX on average about every 16 days this year,” Goldman added.

This is not the only legal tussle between the two billionaires. Bezos' Blue Origins filed a lawsuit against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration decision to award a $2.9 future lunar lander contract to SpaceX. The lawsuit delayed an already delayed project of bringing mankind to the moon again by 2024.

"If lobbying & lawyers could get u to orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto rn," Musk had said on Twitter.

First Published:Sept 2, 2021 3:40 PM IST