Why You Can Trust CNET Amazon looks to space to expand its cloud-computing business
Amazon Web Services announces a new aerospace and satellite unit.
Amazon said its Web Services Ground Station is used to communicate with satellites.
Amazon is making a bigger push into space technology. The e-commerce giant said on Tuesday that its cloud computing branch, Amazon Web Services, is adding a new space business segment called Aerospace and Satellite Solutions.
"We find ourselves in the most exciting time in space since the Apollo missions," retired US Air Force Major General Clint Crosier, who'll be leading the segment, said in a blog post. Crosier previously directed the planning of the US Space Force.
Amazon said the new unit plans to offer a wide range of cloud-computing services, including processing data in orbit and supporting government space missions.
The e-commerce giant has grown its reach in the space business in recent years. In 2018, Amazon Web Services said it supported NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, along with satellite operators Iridium Communications and Spire Global.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos , who also owns space company Blue Origin , said last year that Amazon is in the early stages of Project Kuiper, which aims to provide broadband internet around the globe by launching more than 3,000 satellites into space.
