Blue Origin unveils TeraWave satellite internet network

Blue Origin has announced a satellite internet network called TeraWave, which is geared toward enterprise, data center, and government customers. The network will offer data speeds up to 6 Tbps. The announcement marks a significant expansion for the space company, which launched its New Glenn rocket in 2025, counting NASA among its customers. With TeraWave, Blue Origin is expanding its commercial space offerings by becoming a satellite network operator.

The TeraWave constellation will use 5,280 satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO)—the altitude closest to Earth—and 128 satellites in medium-Earth orbit (MEO), which sits at a higher altitude. Blue Origin plans to deploy the first of these satellites in late 2027. The two tiers of satellites will use different communication methods to transmit data:

• Low-Earth orbit satellites: These will use radio frequency (RF) connectivity—a communication method using radio waves—to deliver a maximum data transfer speed of 144 Gbps.
• Medium-Earth orbit satellites: These will utilize optical links—a communication method using light—to achieve the much higher speed of up to 6 Tbps.

This technical setup positions TeraWave as an alternative to existing satellite networks. For comparison, SpaceX’s Starlink, the leading satellite internet provider, currently serves more than 9 million customers with maximum speeds of 400 Mbps, though it plans to offer 1 Gbps speeds in the future. Meanwhile, Amazon—founded by Jeff Bezos, who also founded Blue Origin—is developing its own consumer-focused satellite network called Leo, which will consist of around 3,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit. While Amazon’s Leo targets consumers, Blue Origin’s TeraWave is designed specifically for enterprise, data center, and government customers. Taken together, the two networks from Bezos’ companies could provide competition to SpaceX’s Starlink.

The network’s website states that TeraWave is designed to add a space-based layer to existing network infrastructure, offering connectivity to locations that traditional methods cannot reach. Blue Origin stated that the network addresses specific gaps in the current market. “We identified an unmet need with customers who were seeking enterprise-grade internet access with higher speeds, symmetrical upload/download speeds, more redundancy, and rapid scalability for their networks. TeraWave solves for these problems,” the company said.

Why it matters

Blue Origin is expanding from launch services to becoming a satellite operator, directly competing with SpaceX’s Starlink in the enterprise and government connectivity sectors.