AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Ars Technica, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

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Amazon has completed its 1,000th satellite at its factory in Kirkland, Washington, marking a major step toward launching its space internet service by the end of the year. The company aims to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink and OneWeb by delivering broadband from low-Earth orbit. Rajeev Badyal, who previously led Starlink before being fired by Elon Musk, now heads Amazon’s Leo project alongside Paul Palcisco and Chris Weber.

To reach this milestone, the team overcame significant production challenges to become the world’s second-largest satellite manufacturer. They built a 170,000-square-foot factory in December 2022 and redesigned their processes to produce 27 satellites weekly, up from an initial rate of 27 per six months. The company focuses on high-value internal components like its propulsion system while outsourcing other parts with decades of external expertise.

Testing was identified as the biggest technical hurdle. Amazon blended traditional space testing standards with faster consumer electronics methods to reduce test times from days or weeks to hours without sacrificing quality. Manufacturing a single satellite now takes several weeks, but improvements allow this time to drop to one to two weeks as processes are refined. The factory is paced to ensure satellites are always ready for upcoming launches.