“This is Amazon’s first time putting satellites into space, and we’re going to learn an incredible amount regardless of how the mission unfolds,” Rajeev Badyal, a vice president of technology for Project Kuiper at Amazon, said in a statement from the company.

Amazon is building satellites and Mr. Bezos’s other company is building rockets, so why isn’t one flying on the other? That is because Blue Origin has yet to launch anything into orbit.

Although its suborbital space tourist rocket New Shepard has made many flights, the New Glenn rocket that it has been developing for more than a decade to take payloads like Kuiper satellites to orbit is at least three years behind schedule. Its debut flight is penciled in for next year.

In April last year, Amazon announced a gigantic purchase of up to 83 launches, the largest commercial purchase of rocket launches ever. That includes 27 from Blue Origin and the rest from two other companies, Arianespace of France and United Launch Alliance of the United States. The contracts with the other companies also rely on new rockets that have not yet flown: the Ariane 6 from Arianespace and the Vulcan from United Launch Alliance.

Amazon also previously announced that it was buying from United Launch Alliance nine launches of the venerable Atlas V rockets. Atlas V has flown for more than two decades but is being retired because it relies on Russian-made rocket engines.