Amazon stated on Friday it should make investments $120 million to construct a satellite tv for pc development facility at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart, as a part of its plans to launch an area web service to rival SpaceX’s Starlink.
The corporate based by Jeff Bezos says its “Venture Kuiper” will present “quick, reasonably priced broadband to unserved and underserved communities all over the world,” with a constellation of greater than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).
“We have now an bold plan to start Venture Kuiper’s full-scale manufacturing launches and early buyer pilots subsequent yr, and this new facility will play a crucial position,” stated Steve Metayer, vice chairman of Kuiper Manufacturing Operations.
The corporate has one other manufacturing facility in Kirkland, Washington, the place it should start operations by the tip of this yr.
The models will then be despatched to Florida to hold out closing preparations, and combine them with rockets from Blue Origin — additionally based by Bezos — and United Launch Alliance (ULA) forward of launch.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the primary batch of its greater than 3,700 operational Starlink satellites in 2019 and is by far the largest participant. London-headquartered OneWeb is one other early entrant within the rising sector.
However governments are additionally eager to hitch the push.
China plans to launch 13,000 satellites as a part of its GuoWang constellation, whereas Canada’s Telesat will add 300 and German start-up Rivada is eyeing 600.
That will probably be along with the European Union’s Iris mission — 170 satellites — and the 300-500 satellites deliberate to be launched by the US navy’s Area Growth Company.
