E-commerce and technology company Amazon is constructing a $120m satellite processing facility at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US, with an aim to complete construction by the end of next year.
This 100,000ft² facility is part of the approximately $10bn that the business has pledged to invest in its overarching ‘Kuiper’ project.
The project aims to transmit broadband globally with a planned network of thousands of low-orbiting satellites.
Once built, the Florida facility, which is expected to have 50 employees, will serve as the last stop for the Kuiper satellites before they are launched into space.
These satellites are being built at Amazon’s facility in Redmond, US.
Complementing the online services of Amazon, the network will mostly compete with Starlink from SpaceX.
This ten-storey facility will allow the satellites to be placed in rocket payload fairings, which are the safeguard casings around the satellites that are placed atop the rocket itself.
According to Amazon Kuiper production operations vice-president Steve Metayer, the construction of the facility is expected to be finished by late next year, with the first batch of satellites expected to arrive at the site for processing in the first half of 2025.
Amazon plans to launch its debut satellites early next year, with plans to put half of the mass-produced network into orbit by 2026, as stipulated by US regulatory authorities.
The company has received 77 heavy-lift rocket launch contracts running into billions of dollars, with most of these contracts coming from United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture of Boeing-Lockheed, and Blue Origin, the space entity developed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
