Amazon is investing $120 million to build a satellite assembly plant at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the company announced on Friday, AFP reported.

The new facility will allow the online retail giant to compete with SpaceX and its Starlink group of satellites, which has its own group of more than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit, dubbed the Kuiper Project.

The constellation will “provide fast and affordable Internet access to people around the world who don’t have access,” the group said in a statement.

“We have an ambitious plan to launch large-scale production of the Kuiper project and conduct the first customer tests already next year. This plant will be an important part of that,” Steve Metayer, Kuiper’s vice president of manufacturing operations, was quoted as saying in the statement.

The group already has another factory in Kirkland, Washington (NW), where production will begin at the end of the year.

The satellites will then be sent to Florida for final adjustments before being launched into low orbit by Blue Origin, also founded by Jeff Bezos, and United Launch Alliance (ULA). (photo: Andreistanescu | Dreamstime.com)