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Get ready for Amazon’s Project Kuiper to pick up the pace in the megaconstellation space race.

So far, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite megaconstellation has dominated the market for broadband connectivity from low Earth orbit. In the nearly 10 years since SpaceX founder Elon Musk unveiled the project in Seattle, the Starlink network has attracted more than 5 million subscribers and more than $2 billion in U.S. government contracts (including work on the Starshield national security network).

But the year ahead promises to bring heightened competition: Like Starlink, Project Kuiper aims to offer high-speed internet access from the skies for hundreds of millions of people around the world who are currently underserved.

Following up on last year’s successful test of two prototype satellites, Amazon plans to begin launching operational Kuiper satellites in early 2025, with service due to begin by the end of the year. Pricing details haven’t yet been announced, but Amazon says “affordability is a key principle of Project Kuiper.”

Amazon’s satellites are being built at facilities in Kirkland and Redmond, Wash., with additional support facilities located in Everett, Wash., and at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Under the terms of Amazon’s license from the Federal Communications Commission, at least half of Project Kuiper’s initial set of 3,232 satellites will have to go into orbit by mid-2026 — which will require an ambitious launch campaign. Next year’s milestone launch is due to use United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, but Amazon has also reserved rides on ULA’s Vulcan, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, Arianespace’s Ariane 6 and even SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

Even as Amazon is gearing up on the technical side, it’s firming up its business plans as well. Project Kuiper’s strategic partners include Verizon in the U.S. and other telecom providers in South America, Japan, Europe and Africa. This month, officials in Taiwan said they were talking with Amazon about collaborating on Kuiper — a deal that could make the island’s communication systems more resilient in the face of potential threats from mainland China.

In his most recent letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that Kuiper will represent a “very large revenue opportunity” once it’s in service. Among the biggest opportunities are potential synergies with Amazon Web Services, which could use Kuiper to boost global connectivity through the cloud.

Meanwhile, SpaceX isn’t standing still: Microsoft has incorporated Starlink connectivity into its Azure cloud computing ecosystem. In July, the Redmond-based software giant’s M12 venture fund led a $40 million funding round for Armada, a startup that’s building mobile data centers optimized for Starlink services.

In early 2025, Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile is due to begin beta testing for direct-to-cell services that make use of SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink satellites. Mike Katz, T-Mobile’s president of marketing, strategy and products, said in a news release that T-Mobile Starlink will make “the phone in your pocket work in areas of the U.S. that have never, and probably never will, have ground-based coverage.”

The maturation of the megaconstellation market isn’t the only space development to look forward to in the year to come. Here’s a look back at the top space stories of 2024, and a look ahead to space stories that are likely to pop up in 2025:

2024’s top space stories

• Blue Origin gets back to flying crews: Jeff Bezos’ space venture resumed sending customers on suborbital space trips in May after a 21-month gap.
• Boeing’s Starliner falls short in first crewed flight test: Glitches experienced during two astronauts’ flight to International Space Station in June forced NASA to send the Starliner space taxi back down to Earth uncrewed. The two Starliner crew members are still waiting for a ride back on a SpaceX Dragon. Meanwhile, Boeing’s continuing problems led to an executive overhaul.
• SpaceX catches a falling Starship: SpaceX made significant progress in the flight test program for its Starship / Super Heavy launch system — including a flight in October that featured a spectacular “catch” of the Super Heavy booster as it descended back to its launch pad.
• Good news, bad news for moon missions: A series of robotic landers made it to the moon — including Japan’s SLIM spacecraft and Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus probe. But Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander had to miss out due to a problem with its propulsion system. Also, NASA announced that the first crewed lunar landing in more than half a century would have to be postponed until mid-2027 at the earliest.
• A solar eclipse and other wonders in the sky: Weather made seeing April’s total solar eclipse a tricky proposition, but persistence paid off. The following month brought an auroral display that was widely seen, and October’s highlight was an appearance by Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.

Space trends to watch in 2025

• First flight for Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket: In the wake of a successful hotfire test, Jeff Bezos’ space venture is expected to launch its first orbital payload early in the new year.
• A big year for Stoke Space and its Nova rocket: The Tukwila, Wash.-based startup conducted its own crucial hotfire test this month and is aiming to launch its first Nova rocket from Florida by the end of 2025.
• Grand opening for a grand observatory: Science operations will begin at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile next year, with “First Light” currently scheduled for June. The billion-dollar project has received financial support from Microsoft pioneer Charles Simonyi and technical guidance from astronomers at the University of Washington.
• Total lunar eclipse and other wonders: Millions of Americans will be able to watch the moon go dim on the night of March 13-14. A different sort of spectacle is due to unfold in late January and early February, when as many as six planets (and maybe even seven) will be visible in the night sky.
• The Trump effect on the final frontier: It seems likely that there’ll be changes in space policy once Donald Trump returns to the White House, especially considering that Elon Musk is a key adviser. Trump’s choice for NASA administrator, tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, has already set new precedents as the leader of the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn space missions. What might Isaacman, Musk and Trump come up with in 2025? Stay tuned…