Amazon has announced that it will launch the initial phase of its low-Earth orbit satellite internet service, 'Leo,' within this year, signaling the start of full-scale competition with SpaceX's 'Starlink.'

Amazon stated that it successfully launched and deployed 29 low-Earth orbit satellites into orbit using a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 12:30 a.m. ET on July 2.

With this launch, the number of satellites Amazon has deployed into low-Earth orbit has increased to 396.

Melissa Wuerl, head of launch systems for Amazon's Leo, noted that this launch marked the final mission for the Atlas rocket, and that future launches will be conducted using the 'Vulcan' heavy-lift rocket.

Wuerl added, "This will allow us to rapidly expand our network coverage after we launch the initial service (for satellite internet) later this year."

Chris Webber, general manager of Amazon's Leo, also stated on X (formerly Twitter), "We have completed enough launches to support our initial service this year."

Amazon established its satellite internet project, originally named 'Project Kuiper,' in 2019 and changed the name last year to Leo, which stands for Low Earth Orbit.

Amazon began offering Leo's enterprise services to select companies in November of last year, but it has not yet launched services for general consumers.

Once Amazon begins its Leo service in earnest, it will compete with Starlink, the satellite internet service from Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX, which is the current market leader.

Starlink, which began service in 2015, has currently built a constellation of over 10,000 satellites and has secured more than 10 million subscribers.

Amazon plans to deploy over 7,700 satellites, but its progress has been slow due to a lack of rocket launch capacity.

In particular, the launch operations are expected to face continued setbacks after a large 'New Glenn' rocket from Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, exploded during a static fire test in May, damaging launch pad infrastructure at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Jared Isaacman, Administrator of NASA, estimated that the restoration of the launch pad would take two years, until 2028.

However, Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, recently announced a plan to shorten the recovery period by switching to a hybrid horizontal and vertical launch method that was already under development, rather than rebuilding the existing launch pad.