Internet: Amazon will invest 120 million dollars for a satellite factory

Amazon will invest $120 million to build a satellite assembly plant to be located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This new equipment should allow Amazon to compete with SpaceX and its constellation of Starlink satellites, with its own constellation of more than 3,200 satellites in low orbit, called Project Kuiper. This constellation goes “provide fast, low-cost Internet access to people who don’t have it anywhere in the world”said the group in his press release.

“We have an ambitious plan to start full-scale production of the Kuiper Project and conduct the first customer trials as early as next year. This plant will be a big part of that.”said Kuiper vice president of production operations, Steve Metayer, quoted by the press release.

The group already has another site in Kirkland, Washington, where production will begin later this year. The satellites will then be transported to Florida for final adjustments before being placed in low orbit using launchers from Blue Origin, also founded by Jeff Bezos, and the United Launch Alliance (ULA).

SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, began deploying its constellation of more than 3,700 Starlink satellites in 2019 and is currently, by far, the main player in this market, in which OneWeb, a British operator, is trying to compete. Several governments also want to join the race for low-orbit constellations, like China, which wants to have its own GuoWang constellation, planned with 13,000 satellites.

The European Union wants to launch 170 satellites as part of its Iris project, while the American space development agency, attached to the Ministry of Defense, plans between 300 and 500.