Amazon.com Inc. has already commoditized e-commerce and the cloud. Why not satellite data as well?

That’s the premise behind Amazon Web Services Inc.’s decision in March to launch a new cloud service in the last week of November that leverages its global network to improve the ability of satellite operators to bring data to Earth. AWS Ground Station will use a network of ground stations at the company’s facilities to transfer data rapidly from space into AWS data centers.

“We’ve already procured 24 antennas, we’ve already built two ground stations in the United States, and we’ve downlinked over hundreds of contacts with satellites, bringing Earth imagery down and other test data to prove that this system works,” said Shayn Hawthorne (pictured), senior manager at AWS. “We actually would call it ‘ground station as a service.’”

Hawthorne spoke with John Furrier and Dave Vellante, co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. They discussed how the project began, the value proposition it offered, the time it took to launch and early customers. (* Disclosure below.)

Reducing cost of satellite downloads

The idea for launching its own cloud-fueled ground station service came to AWS from conversations with customers, according to Hawthorne. “They had a number of challenges in getting the data off of their satellites and down to the ground,” he said.

One of those challenges was cost. It’s an expensive proposition to bring data from space, and AWS thought it could offer a significant savings based on the nature of its cloud structure while providing analytics tools, such as Rekognition and SageMaker, to satellite customers.

“They need the ability to pay by the minute, so they are actually able to use variable expense to pay for satellite downlinks instead of capital expense to go out and build it,” Hawthorne said. “We’re able to offer them a product that’s 80 percent cheaper than if they had to go out and build a complete network.”

It took the Ground Station project team three months to get the approval for moving ahead from AWS Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and six more months after that to launch at the conference in Las Vegas. The time was streamlined in part because there was plenty of in-house talent to do the job.

“We were actually able to bring together 80 to 90 percent of the needed skills to build AWS Ground Station from people who had been working at Amazon.com and AWS,” Hawthorne said.

Much of the AWS team’s focus has been on working with major partners, such as Lockheed Martin Corp. They are also validating the new service with major satellite users, such as DigitalGlobe, BlackSky and HawkEye 360, according to Hawthorne.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s extensive coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: Amazon Web Services Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE