The corporate based via Jeff Bezos says its “Project Kuiper” will supply “fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world,” with a constellation of greater than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).
“We have an ambitious plan to begin Project Kuiper’s full-scale production launches and early customer pilots next year, and this new facility will play a critical role,” mentioned Steve Metayer, vp of Kuiper Production Operations.
The corporate has every other manufacturing facility in Kirkland, Washington, the place it’ll start operations via the tip of this yr.
The devices will then be despatched to Florida to hold out ultimate arrangements, and combine them with rockets from Blue Origin — additionally based via Bezos — and United Launch Alliance (ULA) forward of release.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX introduced the primary batch of its greater than 3,700 operational Starlink satellites in 2019 and is via a ways the most important participant. London-headquartered OneWeb is every other early entrant within the rising sector.
But governments also are willing to sign up for the push.
China plans to release 13,000 satellites as a part of its GuoWang constellation, whilst Canada’s Telesat will upload 300 and German start-up Rivada is eyeing 600.
That will likely be along with the European Union’s Iris venture — 170 satellites — and the 300-500 satellites deliberate to be introduced via the United States army’s Space Development Agency.