Amazon Is Launching Pay-As-You-Go Cloud Computing In Space

At its annual re:Invent conference in Seattle this week, Amazon unveiled a service that lets owners of satellites rent time on Amazon-managed ground stations to send and receive data from orbit. 'The service, called AWS Ground Station, works in much the same way as Amazon's well-established business for tapping computing capacity via the cloud,' reports MIT Technology Review. From the report: According to an AWS blog post, big businesses with a large number of satellites typically build and operate their own ground stations at a cost of a million dollars or more for each one. Smaller companies that can't afford their own often end up signing inflexible, long-term contracts with third parties that own and run such stations. The new service will let satellite operators get access to a ground station at short notice on a pay-as-you-go basis. Those who know how much capacity they will need well in advance can book ahead and pay less for downlink time. AWS is kicking off with a pair of ground stations and says it will have a total of a dozen up and running by the middle of next year. It will monitor how demand develops before deciding how many more stations to add.

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