TAMPA, Fla. — Amazon announced plans July 21 to construct a satellite processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, because it prepares to begin launching 3,200 industrial Project Kuiper broadband satellites next yr.
The 31,000-square-meter facility Amazon expects to finish in 2024 at Kennedy’s runway-equipped Launch and Landing Facility will perform final preparations of Project Kuiper satellites shipped in from out of state for launch aboard Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance rockets.
Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance, along with Europe’s Arianespace, are expected to perform as much as 92 Project Kuiper launches under a blockbuster launch deal announced in early 2022.
Amazon said its production facilities in Kirkland, Washington, are heading in the right direction to begin churning out satellites by the tip of the yr to supply early low Earth orbit services to undisclosed enterprise customers in 2024.
The corporate doesn’t expect the combination facility to be operational before early 2025, indicating plans for a significant ramp-up over the next 18 months in a race to fulfill regulatory deadlines.
Amazon has to deploy half its constellation — or 1,618 satellites — by July 2026 under deployment rules tied to its Federal Communications Commission license, and the remaining by July 2029.
A Project Kuiper spokesperson declined to detail its deployment plan but said it’s on target to fulfill the 2026 deadline, and can use a third-party payload processing facility until its own is fully commissioned.
Avoiding delays
Project Kuiper has spent billions of dollars to get firm commitments for 77 heavy-lift launch vehicles, with the bulk set to fly out of Florida to profit from the combination facility.
But other than nine ULA Atlas 5 vehicles, these missions depend on rockets which have yet to enter service amid development delays: ULA’s Vulcan Centaur, Blue Origin’s Recent Glenn, and Ariane 6 from Arianespace.
Amazon had initially aimed to launch its first two prototype satellites by the fourth quarter of 2022 with rocket developer ABL Space Systems, before switching to a Vulcan mission now slated for the fourth quarter of this yr following a series of delays.
While Project Kuiper is evaluating options, the spokesperson said it still plans to launch the prototypes on Vulcan’s debut.
Amazon said in a news release that it’s investing $120 million to construct its Florida satellite processing facility, a part of the greater than $10 billion it has committed to Project Kuiper. The corporate can also be applying for a spaceport grant from the Florida Department of Transportation to support the development.
As much as 50 recent jobs could be created on the Space Coast as a part of the investment, in response to Amazon, joining its greater than 1,400 Project Kuiper employees across the US — primarily in Washington.