The world’s largest retailer wants to sell you something else—Internet from space. Amazon has been developing a constellation of satellites to deliver broadband Internet from low-Earth orbit for the better part of a decade, and the company is just about ready to pull back the curtain. It is entering a market that SpaceX, with its Starlink Internet, has dominated for the last half decade.
Amazon’s debut into satellite Internet is being closely watched, not just by some consumers, but by businesses ranging from airlines, to shipping companies, to governments. Broadband Internet from orbit has proven to be broadly useful for a lot of purposes, from video games to commerce to warfighting. But until now most people had to buy it from Elon Musk and SpaceX.
OneWeb has only offered limited services, leaving Amazon as the only real competitor to deliver high-speed Internet globally. Moreover, at the head of the company’s broadband efforts is Rajeev Badyal, whom Musk fired eight years ago for moving too cautiously on Starlink. In a wide-ranging interview this week with Badyal and two other senior Amazon officials developing the constellation—Paul Palcisco, director of production; and Chris Weber, vice president of business—Ars was able to learn that the Amazon Leo project is nearing several critical milestones.
At its Kirkland, Washington-based factory, the company recently manufactured its 1,000th satellite, will soon make its debut on the Vulcan rocket, and is just weeks away from offering commercial service for the first time. We discussed the challenges that Amazon had to overcome to become the world’s second-largest satellite manufacturer (behind SpaceX), and reach the point where it can build a handful of satellites every day. Badyal also confirmed that the Vulcan rocket’s upcoming return-to-flight mission will carry Amazon Leo satellites and that another Vulcan rocket standing right next to it is also being prepared to launch this year with more Amazon satellites.
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