Amazon Establishes Florida Facility to Compete with Starlink

Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a competitor to Starlink, is making progress towards its launch. The company revealed that it is currently building a satellite-processing facility worth $120 million at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Amazon intends to send its initial satellites into space “in the coming months” and commence customer trials in the following year.

Like Elon Musk’s Starlink, Project Kuiper aims to provide fast and affordable satellite broadband to areas “unserved or underserved by traditional internet and communications options.” (It’s an Amazon initiative, but should have a nice relationship with Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.) The Kuiper project launched in 2018 and received an FCC satellite license two years later. The company plans to create a combination of 3,236 satellites to provide seamless broadband coverage to rural users. Amazon has yet to announce consumer pricing, but hints at budget-friendly plans by saying that “affordability is a key tenet of Project Kuiper.” The company also plans to offer multiple speed/pricing tiers.

The Kuiper satellites will be assembled at a new “state-of-the-art manufacturing facility” in Kirkland, Washington by the end of 2023. The new Florida facility will receive the satellite transmissions and complete the final preparations before their commercial deployment. Amazon says it has secured launches from Blue Origin, Arianespace and United Launch Alliance (ULA). Most of the units will be deployed from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida, near the new processing facility.

Amazon touted Project Kuiper’s anticipated job creation. It says more than 1,400 people are already working on it, and the company expects the initiative to eventually support thousands of suppliers and high-skilled jobs — particularly in Alabama, Florida and Colorado.