Amazon has announced it is introducing a new business segment dedicated to the aerospace and satellite industry.

Amazon Web services aim for space with new space business segment

The Aerospace and Satellite Solutions business segment will bring AWS services to space enterprises, it says, and work with customers and partners around the world.

A company blog post by Teresa Carlson, vp for Amazon Web Services’ worldwide public sector business, outlines the connection.

The specific aims of the Aerospace and Satellite Solutions are to provide “secure cloud solutions to support government missions and companies advancing space around the world”.

It will also aim to launch new services that process space data on Earth and in orbit.

“Low-latency internet, high-resolution Earth observation, and ubiquitous Internet of Things communications companies will launch thousands of new satellites over the next five years to provide sensing capabilities to customers around the world. The space landscape has dramatically shifted over the past 10 years, and this has created an enormous need for new types of innovation for space-based missions.”

“Amazon Web Services (AWS) has significant experience supporting commercial and government customers that design satellites and conduct spaceflight operations. AWS’s reliable global infrastructure and unmatched portfolio of cloud services help organisations process and transform massive collections of data from space, and then quickly analyse the data to make it actionable, redefining how we research, make decisions, and see our world.”

Pictured is the AWS Ground Station, which the company says helps customers communicate with satellites, and to downlink, process, and distribute captured satellite data. It’s already being used by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

Retired Air Force Major General Clint Crosier, former director of Space Force Planning at the U.S. Space Force, is named as the leader of the new segment.

“We find ourselves in the most exciting time in space since the Apollo missions,” said Crosier. “I have watched AWS transform the IT industry over the last 10 years and be instrumental in so many space milestones. I am honoured to join AWS to continue to transform the industry and propel the space enterprise forward.”