TeraWave Satellite Communications Network

https://www.blueorigin.com/terawave

58•T-A•2h ago

Comments

0xbeefcab•1h ago

Interesting there is an optical networking option for end users (claims ~6TBps). Maybe a really dumb question, but how would the end user's ground station maintain connectivity during cloudy weather? Do they have cloud-penetrating lasers from the MEO satellites? Would that interfere with aircraft, astronomy tools, etc?

Some short googling says they have lasers that clear a path for a data carrying beam, but that seems wasteful/infeasible for commercial uses

miyuru•1h ago

Some info from NASA optical communication page.

"Even Earth’s atmosphere interferes with optical communications. Clouds and mist can interrupt a laser. A solution to this is building multiple ground stations, which are telescopes on Earth that receive infrared waves. If it’s cloudy at one station, the waves can be redirected to a different ground station. With more ground stations, the network can be more flexible during bad weather. SCaN is also investigating multiple approaches, like Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking and satellite arrays to help deal with challenges derived from atmospheric means."

https://www.nasa.gov/technology/space-comms/optical-communic...

Some more info on Optical Communications for Satellites: https://www.kiss.caltech.edu/workshops/optcomm/presentations...

BrianGragg•52m ago

I think customer speeds is 144 and the 6Tb is their ground links to their stations. That is my take on it at least as its not super clear. I'm curious as to how it works as well.

daemonologist•14m ago

My read was that they're going to have 144 Gbps RF for both regular users and their ground station gateways, and 6 Tbps optical for satellite-satellite back haul, but then you can also buy direct ground-MEO access to a back haul link. (Presumably MEO-only because it's hard to maintain the link to a fast-moving LEO satellite?)

They don't seem to mention using optical for their own ground stations - maybe too unreliable?

everfrustrated•1h ago

Might be better to replace url with the full press release which has actual information

https://www.blueorigin.com/news/blue-origin-introduces-teraw...

>The TeraWave architecture consists of 5,408 optically interconnected satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO).

perihelions•50m ago

An even better source, imho:

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/blue-origin-we-want-to... ("Another Jeff Bezos company has announced plans to develop a megaconstellation")

agentifysh•1h ago

this seems rather expensive but i get that its not competing with spacex here for consumer market

Noaidi•38m ago

Great, even more millimeter wave EMFs that are gonna screw up my life and give me insomnia, nightmares, and anxiety while I’m trying to live in peace in my van on the road.

And I don’t care if you don’t believe me.

gmuslera•35m ago

Latency may play a factor here, I'm not sure at which height they plan to put them.

everfrustrated•34m ago

All those AI datacenters in space will need a way to get data to them.

Bezos can't even build his first constellation and already planning his second... Possibly the real play here is snapping up more frequency licenses on earth (we need them because we're launching any day now promise). They are the real constraining resource and could be used to keep others out of the market for a while.

grvbck•23m ago

From a technical standpoint: amazing achievement, and the tech nerd in me is in awe. But it feels like a lot of people don't understand (or care?) how much these companies are polluting the space.

Before the "new wave", in 2010-2015 or so, Earth had around 1500 active satellites in orbit, and another 2,000-2,500 defunct ones.

Starlink now has almost 9,500 satellites in orbit, has approvals for 12,000 and long-term plans for up to 42,000. Blue Origin has added 5,500 to that. Amazon plans for 3,000. China has two megaconstellations under construction, for a total of 26,000, and has filed for even larger systems, up to 200,000 satellites.

We might be the last generation that is able to watch the stars.

grvbck•22m ago

(Also, for a frame of reference as to how large these numbers are: the entire gps network operates on 31 satellites.)

direwolf20•14m ago

How many causes Kessler syndrome?

stefan_•12m ago

Is it a lot? It's a bit like you are telling me there are gonna be 250000 cars on a planet larger than Earth.

looperhacks•3m ago

With the difference that cars can steer and stop to avoid collisions and aren't necessarily in your field of view every time you look at the night sky ;)

I have no idea if the number is actually a lot shrug but it's surely different than cars on a planet's surface

quaintdev•5m ago

I wonder if there's a limit to space junk beyond which leaving the Earth in a space shuttle becomes impossible.

embedding-shape•8m ago

Assuming all these companies are interested in launching their own constellations of ~10K-100K satellites into L/MEO, how many companies could actually do this before cascading collisions starts becoming a real worry?

gordonhart•4m ago

Well, this shoots down the argument that Blue Origin is just Amazon's space wing. Strange to see them launching a direct Amazon Leo competitor but now that they have reusable boosters (on paper) it does make more sense for them to control the lion's share of their launch manifest with their own megaconstellation.

esseph•3m ago

[delayed]

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