{"id":17852,"date":"2019-12-18T23:29:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T15:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/amazon-is-moving-project-kuiper-satellite-operation-to-huge-redmond-facility\/"},"modified":"2019-12-18T23:29:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T15:29:03","slug":"amazon-is-moving-project-kuiper-satellite-operation-to-huge-redmond-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/amazon-is-moving-project-kuiper-satellite-operation-to-huge-redmond-facility\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon is moving Project Kuiper satellite operation to huge Redmond facility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jeff
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, speaks at the Satellite 2017 conference in Washington, D.C. (Via Satellite Magazine via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amazon announced today that its Project Kuiper satellite operation has outgrown its current office space, and will move into 219,000 square feet of space that it\u2019s leasing in Redmond, Wash. \u2014 the same city where one of its chief rivals, SpaceX, has its own satellite operation.<\/p>\n

The new headquarters facility, spread across two buildings, will include offices and design space, research and development labs and prototype manufacturing facilities, Amazon said today in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cRenovations on the facility are already underway, and the Kuiper team will move into the new site in 2020,\u201d Amazon said.<\/p>\n

Kuiper HQ will be in the same locale as Microsoft\u2019s world headquarters, and within about an hour\u2019s drive (on a good day) from the growing HQ for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 other big space venture, Blue Origin, south of Seattle in Kent, Wash.<\/p>\n

Redmond Commerce Center, which is about a half-mile from SpaceX\u2019s original Redmond office building, seems the likeliest prospect for Project Kuiper\u2019s headquarters. It has two buildings that were recently leased to new tenants, with a total of just over 219,000 square feet. Renovation work is underway, according to Redmond city records. The property\u2019s parking lot has spaces for 300 vehicles.<\/p>\n

One real estate source told GeekWire that the site was being cleaned up this afternoon inside and out, apparently for the new tenants. Amazon would not confirm the location of Kuiper\u2019s Redmond digs, but we\u2019ll update this story with anything further we find out. (And for what it\u2019s worth, SpaceX has moved its Starlink satellite operation a few miles farther out, to Redmond Ridge Corporate Center.)<\/p>\n

\"\"
Redmond Commerce Center ticks several of the boxes as the future home of Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper satellite team. (LBA Logistics Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Project Kuiper aims to put 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit to provide broadband data connectivity for millions of people in underserved markets around the world, as well as for Amazon Web Services and the Seattle-based retailing giant\u2019s other data-dependent services.<\/p>\n

Amazon hasn\u2019t yet revealed a timetable for launching the satellites or providing service, but in today\u2019s update, the company said it\u2019s made \u201csignificant progress\u201d toward its goal since announcing the project in April. Today\u2019s statement noted that Amazon has built \u201ca diverse, world-class team of experts who are passionate about bridging the digital divide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Project Kuiper careers website currently lists 167 open jobs, with most of them based in Bellevue, Wash., the city next door to Redmond.<\/p>\n

Project Kuiper\u2019s team has submitted filings with the International Telecommunication Union and with the Federal Communications Commission, but it\u2019s still far behind SpaceX\u2019s Redmond-based Starlink project and OneWeb\u2019s satellite broadband effort, which have already received approvals for launching thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit. The prospect of having so many spacecraft sailing across the night sky has sparked concern from astronomers and from experts on space traffic management.<\/p>\n

Amazon hasn\u2019t yet said which launch provider will put Project Kuiper\u2019s satellites in orbit. Blue Origin would be an obvious candidate because of the Bezos connection. However, before going with Bezos\u2019 privately held company, publicly traded Amazon would have to do due diligence and show that such a choice would provide the best value for the company\u2019s shareholders.<\/p>\n

This report was originally published at 1:19 p.m. PT Dec. 18, and was updated with details about Redmond Commerce Center.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, speaks at the Satellite 2017 conference in Washington, D.C. (Via Satellite Magazine via YouTube) Amazon announced today that its Project Kuiper satellite operation has outgrown its current office space, and will move into 219,000 square feet of space that it\u2019s leasing in Redmond, Wash. \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[275,962,21],"class_list":["post-17852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-amazon","tag-project-kuiper","tag-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}