Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday announced a new business segment dedicated to accelerating innovation in the global aerospace and satellite industry.
The ‘Aerospace and Satellite Solutions’ business segment will bring AWS services and solutions to the space enterprise, and work with customers and partners around the world, said Teresa Carlson, Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector, AWS, which is Amazon’s Cloud arm.
The new segment would help reimagine space system architectures, transform space enterprises, launch new services that process space data on Earth and in orbit and provide secure, scalable and cost-efficient cloud solutions to support government missions and companies.
The company appointed retired Air Force Major General Clint Crosier, former director of Space Force Planning at the US Space Force, as the leader of this new business segment.
“The world is entering an exciting and daring new age in space. New companies have moved into the space business and are launching more satellites and human missions into orbit than ever before,” said Carlson.
NASA continues to invest in developing a sustainable commercial space economy through Project Artemis. Earlier in the day, the US space agency said it is taking steps towards building Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket boosters to support as many as six additional flights, for a total of up to nine Artemis missions.
“Low-latency internet, high-resolution Earth observation, and ubiquitous Internet of Things (IoT) communications companies will launch thousands of new satellites over the next five years to provide sensing capabilities to customers around the world,” Carlson added.
AWS Ground Station, a fully managed service already provides satellite owners and operators global access to their space workloads.
AWS Ground Station is already being used by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and many other customers.
“With a background in cloud computing, it’s exciting to see Amazon Web Services extend that experience to space, fostering collaborations with Lockheed Martin to help solve some of the world’s toughest problems,” said Rick Ambrose, Executive Vice President, Lockheed Martin Space.