Amazon to Spend Billions on Fleet of Internet Satellites

Amazon to Spend Billions on Fleet of Internet Satellites

The e-commerce giant’s Project Kuiper has purchased up to 83 launches

Amazon.com Inc. is stepping up plans for its proposed fleet of internet satellites that would compete with a service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, buying dozens of space launches from three rocket companies.

Amazon’s Project Kuiper said it secured up to 83 planned launches that would ferry satellites to orbit over a five-year stretch.

The unit of the Seattle-based e-commerce giant hasn’t sent up any satellites yet, though it has said it will have two prototypes launched this year.

Project Kuiper and SpaceX, whose formal name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp., are among the businesses and government agencies racing to send broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit, in some cases and…