THE NEW SPACE RACE (PRIVATE SECTOR EDITION): Amazon is gearing up to take on Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet.

On Monday, Amazon filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for an experimental license to launch the first two prototype satellites for “Project Kuiper,” its planned answer to Starlink.

Amazon’s designs for Kuiper (named after astronomer Gerard Kuiper) involve a full 3,236 small satellites in low Earth orbit to beam broadband to underserved customers. But this giant leap will have to start with two small steps, in the form of the test launches it expects to conduct in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The company has signed up a new rocket builder for these prototype missions. And it’s not Blue Origin.

I’d love to see more competition in space, but as that last line reveals yet again, Bezos so far is more about vaporware and publicity trips.