Amazon Web Services Signs Deal With Greece to Promote the Country's Space Economy

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that it partnered up with Greece's government to turn the country into a regional space hub.

This is the first agreement AWS has that focuses on a country's economic and technology initiatives that aim to expand its space presence globally.

Amazon Web Services and Greece to Work Together

Under a Statement of Strategic Intent agreement, Greece's government and the AWS will team up to promote the country's space economy. The two will also work together to attract and train astronauts and aerospace professionals.

The agreement includes Greece's access to the AWS Active program, which offers tools and resources for using its cloud networking technology, according to Geospatial World.

Professionals and organizations from the country may also have the chance to get a sponsorship from AWS so they could get qualified to work with space-related data. The sponsorship will be through the Registry of Open Data on Amazon Web Services.

The agreement is between the company and two departments: The Ministry of Development and Investment and Digital Governance, according to Reuters.

Last year, AWS worked with Greece's Ministry of Digital Governance and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to update the services with applications supported by the Amazon Web Service's cloud networking technology.

Cameron Brooks, the director of the public sector in Europe at AWS, said in a statement posted on Amazon's site that they would work closely with the Ministries to support Greece's focus on innovation in technology, aerospace, and digital economy.

AWS stated that it had picked 10 US and European space startups for an accelerator program design to operate for four weeks. It is set to boost the cloud computing and analytics skills of space startups.

In 2020, AWS Aerospace and Satellite Solutions was launched as part of Amazon's space industry expansion, and its British investor, Seraphim Capital, backed it up.

In 2019, Amazon launched AWS Ground Station. The department uses the company's cloud to control satellites, download their data and record their findings.

Amazon has also announced that it will invest $10 billion to develop its constellation named Project Kuiper. The project will consist of 3,236 satellites that will provide broadband services worldwide. More than 500 people are assigned to work on the project.

Even though Amazon has not revealed when the launch date will be, the company will have to deploy half of its constellation by 2026 to comply with its regulatory license.

Amazon has now recruited a group of satellite experts that previously worked for Facebook to work on the constellation.

AWS Pandemic Controversy

AWS had laid out its plans for the next few years despite being the center of controversy last year during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

In May 2020, a top official at Amazon Web Services had quit due to the conditions of the company's warehouse. Tim Bray, the VP of AWS, expressed his dismay at how Amazon handled the whistleblowers who revealed the treatment of the warehouse employees who were terrified of the COVID-19 virus.

The whistleblowers were fired, and the issue regarding the warehouse was never entirely solved. Now, AWS is working on several projects, and it is unclear if the conditions are better than it was last year.

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Written by Sophie Webster