Amazon, SpaceX And Others Win $279M In NASA Contracts

Amazon.com Inc's AMZN satellite venture, Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk-led SpaceX's Starlink network, and other satellite firms won a combined $278.5 million in contracts from NASA to demonstrate communications in space.
Amazon's Project Kuiper, a planned network of over 3,000 satellites built to beam broadband internet to remote regions, won $67 million, Reuters reports.
SpaceX's Starlink venture, a more extensive satellite-internet network with some 2,000 satellites in space, won $70 million.
The other awardees include Inmarsat, SES, Telesat Corp TSAT, and Viasat Inc VSAT.
NASA looked to replace its current satellite network in orbit with privately-built systems.
The companies are bound to complete the development and demonstrations of their satellites under the contract by 2025.
NASA sees the companies develop these capabilities for customers beyond NASA, bringing down the costs.
The U.S. space agency increasingly aimed to rely on private space companies for its operations and stimulate more commercial activity in areas from space communications to sending humans to orbit.
Price Action: AMZN shares traded lower by 0.79% at $3,055.72 on the last check Thursday.