Amazon plans to launch up to 80 satellites per month as it aims to compete with satellite-powered internet connectivity services including SpaceX and OneWeb.
The tech giant is preparing mass production of its Kuiper satellites at its 172,000 square foot factory Kirkland, Washington.
Elon Musk strikes a SpaceX pose (pool/Getty)
The government of Florida, run by Republican governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, also recently announced a 100,000 square foot satellite processing facility for the Kuiper satellites at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Via Ars Technica:
Inside this facility near the old space shuttle landing strip, engineers will mount Kuiper satellites onto huge orbital deployer mechanisms standing several stories tall, then encapsulate the structure inside the nose cones of their rockets. The fully integrated payload compartments will then move out to launch pads operated by United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin—the space company established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a few miles away.
The new structure is being built on land leased by NASA to Space Florida, a state-funded economic development agency focused on luring commercial space companies to the Sunshine State. It has a high bay that will stand about 100 feet (30 meters) tall, big enough to house the payload fairings of ULA and Blue Origin’s heavy-lift rockets. Amazon says it is investing about $120 million in the new facility, which is sized to accommodate up to three simultaneous launch campaigns.
“One of the places that makes this facility so unique and such a great place to do business is the proximity to the launch providers and to the launch sites,” said Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy.
Amazon has some catching up to do — SpaceX’s Starlink program has over 4,000 satellites in orbit, powering an internet connectivity service that already has over 1.5 million subscribers. OneWeb also has a sizeable fleet in orbit, numbering over 600.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @AllumBokhari.