Amazon previously announced that it will invest at least $10 billion (8.6 billion euros) in building the first 3,236 satellites. On Thursday evening, Amazon applied for approval to send a total of 7,774 satellites into orbit. Amazon will send the first copies into space next year.
According to Amazon, the satellites will serve homes, hospitals, businesses, government agencies and other organizations around the world, including geographic areas that lack reliable broadband internet, Reuters news agency reported. “Although connectivity has improved worldwide, only 51 percent of the world’s population and 44 percent of the population of developing countries are connected to the Internet.”
Amazon isn’t the only major party investing heavily in satellites. Tesla chief Elon Musk is also making significant progress in this area with his aerospace company SpaceX. SpaceX has already launched more than 1,700 of its Starlink broadband satellites, and has plans to launch thousands more. Musk’s Starlink system is already active in several countries.
London-based OneWeb also operates a fleet of 648 satellites, and aircraft manufacturer Boeing recently received approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a fleet of 147 communications satellites.
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