Amazon is spending $120 million to construct a brand new facility for its Undertaking Kuiper satellites in Florida. On Thursday, the corporate introduced it would use the 100,000-square-foot constructing to organize its web satellites for his or her launch into area.
The constructing will likely be situated at House Florida’s Launch and Touchdown Facility at Kennedy House Heart, the place NASA as soon as landed its House Shuttle missions. Along with its massive sq. footage, the ability may also function a 100-foot-tall bay, giving Amazon loads of room to combine its satellites with rockets from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and the United Launch Alliance (ULA).
Steve Metayer, Amazon’s vp of Kuiper manufacturing operations, tells CNBC that he expects to complete development on the constructing towards the tip of subsequent yr, with satellite tv for pc processing beginning in early 2025.
Regardless of the delay, Amazon says it would begin producing satellites at its facility in Kirkland, Washington, by the tip of this yr and that it expects to “manufacturing launches and early enterprise buyer pilots” in 2024.
“We’ve an bold plan to start Undertaking Kuiper’s full-scale manufacturing launches and early buyer pilots subsequent yr, and this new facility will play a vital function in serving to us ship on that timeline,” Metayer says.
Amazon has a whole lot of catching as much as do with its greatest competitor: SpaceX’s Starlink. Starlink has already deployed a constellation of over 4,000 satellites and is offering service to greater than 1.5 million folks world wide. However Amazon might in the end want SpaceX to succeed — SpaceX’s rockets have turn out to be the most well-liked mode of transport for satellite tv for pc launch corporations and authorities businesses.
