Amazon will invest $120M in internet satellite facility

The announcement is part of "Project Kuiper"

Image credit: Canva

Amazon today announced it will invest $120 million to establish a satellite construction facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for its "Project Kuiper."

Here a few key points:

• This project aims to provide fast and affordable broadband internet to underserved communities worldwide using more than 3,200 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.

• Amazon plans to begin full-scale production launches and early customer pilots in 2024.

• The company already has a production facility in Washington and will integrate the satellites with rockets from Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance before launch.

• Competing with SpaceX's Starlink, which launched the first batch of over 3,700 operational satellites in 2019, other players in the space internet sector include OneWeb, China's GuoWang constellation (13,000 satellites), Canada's Telesat (300 satellites), Germany's Rivada (600 satellites), the European Union's Iris project (170 satellites), and the US military's Space Development Agency (300-500 satellites).