AWS in Orbit: Extending the resilient edge to space.

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>> Maria Varmazis: Hi, I'm Maria Varmazis, host of the "T-Minus Space Daily" podcast, and this is "AWS in Orbit", connected by Iridium, powered by AWS. And we're bringing you the third installment of "AWS in Orbit", the podcast series, at the 39th Space Symposium. In this episode, I'm speaking with representatives from Iridium and AWS Aerospace and Satellite about extending the resilient edge to space.

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Okay. Jim, can you start and tell us a little bit about yourself?

>> Jim Tran: Sure, I'm Jim Tran. I lead the government solutions team for Iridium. Part of my mission is to help evangelize, help educate, really push more capabilities out to our end-users. That's, of course, U.S. forces, intelligence community customers, and coalition partners as well. Firstly I just wanted to say how important AWS is to us, as a company.

>> Oh, thanks.

>> Jim Tran: Especially how we are truly pushing capabilities to a tactical edge, and looking forward to jumping into some use cases as we continue.

>> Maria Varmazis: Fantastic. Clint, over to you, please, for an intro.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah. Thank you. And thank you, Maria. And Jim, thanks for much being here. Jim and I have known each other for a few years. The- the space industry is smaller than you might think, and so we have an opportunity to work together in a number of different ways, but really do appreciate the partnership from Iridium and you in particular, Jim. So I'm Clint Crosier, and I think I have the coolest job in the world. Jim can arm wrestle me if he wants to, but.

>> Maria Varmazis: [Laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: But, so I spent 33 years on active duty in the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space Force, my whole career of flying satellites and launching rockets. So I used to command the GPS satellite constellation that we all use. I've commanded missile warning satellites and communication satellites, and done space launch and space policy. And then my last assignment, I had the- the real privilege of leading the establishment of the U.S. Space Force. And after I retired, I had a wonderful opportunity. AWS, looking across the global space industry, recognizing we have these world class technologies. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced data analytics, all of the things that Jim and Iridium use, and we were looking to create a business that would focus and cater to that industry. And so thus was born the aerospace and satellite business unit within AWS, and I have the privilege of leading that. So my job each and every day is to sit down with Jim and companies like Iridium, and just help them figure out how to leverage the cloud to achieve new innovation in their mission sets.

>> Maria Varmazis: Fantastic intros, both of you. Thank you so much for joining me today. So Jim, let's start with you. We were- we're hearing already so much about the partnership between Iridium and AWS. Let's start with, tell me a bit about Iridium first.

>> Jim Tran: Sure. We're a global constellation. We like to say we were LEO before LEO was cool.

>> Maria Varmazis: [Laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: That's true.

>> Jim Tran: Obviously there's a lot of LEO providers.

>> Clint Crosier: I mean, that's absolutely true. I- I used the Iridium constellation a decade and a half ago.

>> Maria Varmazis: Wow.

>> Jim Tran: That's right.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah.

>> Maria Varmazis: Wow.

>> Jim Tran: And- and the [overtalking].

>> Clint Crosier: As a military user.

>> Jim Tran: Precisely, and I think a lot of the first experiences are with a handheld handset.

>> Clint Crosier: Hmm.

>> Jim Tran: That, of course, were pretty prolific through all of the different wars and- and different conflicts we've been involved in, but Iridium's so much more. We're actually a- an ecosystem of about- eh, about 540 different partners out there. What we actually do is create a network, and the network is so very complicated. I can tell you, with three decades of satellite communications experience, I was blown away, as soon as I came to Iridium, to see how difficult it really is to fly the- the capabilities. But the reality is, it's our partners that create Iridium in terms of the end products. Of the 540 or 550 or so, I says that there's handful, 40 or 50 different customers, customer focus groups. These guys, I call them the Q-branch.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep, yep.

>> Jim Tran: They develop government capabilities.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah, from James Bond.

>> Jim Tran: Absolutely.

>> Maria Varmazis: [Laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: The mad scientist types.

>> Jim Tran: That's my- that's my description.

>> Clint Crosier: No, I get it. The mad scientist types.

>> Jim Tran: But they're building amazing things, things that can operate in low-probability detection environments or even just offering positional awareness for either blue force tracking capabilities, but these are the real- real-life bread of the- real heartbeat, I would say, of Iridium. It's the different partners in the ecosystem that's out there.

>> Maria Varmazis: Fantastic.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah, the LEO before LEO was cool. I'm just going to foot stomp that again. I mean, we've been operating in LEO satellite constellation, SATCOM constellation for decades, really before proliferated LEO, you know, started picking up and- and gaining traction. So, you know, one of the things on the Q-branch, one of the things that I love about my job, your job, the work we do together, is innovating new things. And I know we're going to talk about Iridium CloudConnect here in a few minutes.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep, yep.

>> Clint Crosier: But- but that was a product of that. That was a- a product of people sitting down and saying, okay, you have some world-leading, you know, IOT capability. We've got global infrastructure, resilient, redundant, et cetera. How do we bring those two things together and really create value for your customers? And so when you say Q-branch, my head goes first to Iridium CloudConnect.

>> Maria Varmazis: That's fantastic.

>> Jim Tran: Yeah, there- there's so much going on. Firstly, I think the history of the relationship is also important to highlight. We go back 2017, 2018, I think, is when we started our initial foray, but what we found is that, really it's not just a vendor-partner relationship. We're actually working a lot together to create better solutions and capabilities for the end-users, and specifically, overmanage IOT capabilities.

>> Clint Crosier: Yep.

>> Jim Tran: And that could be short-burst datatype solutions, of which we are the perfect network to support.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: Or it could be.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: Providing telematics, telemedicine, lots of the different evolutions in the IOT environment, we're certainly taking- taking full advantage of. And of course we- we rely very heavily on AWS to help us deliver that.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah, please tell me more about those missions that- that y'all enable. I would love to hear more about that.

>> Jim Tran: Well, there- there's so much that we're doing, right? To say that we are read on and we're supporting lots of different levels would perhaps be an understatement. And it's- it's not being a braggart, and certainly not flexing, but the reality is, it depends on what Iridium device you're using.

>> Maria Varmazis: Sure, yep.

>> Jim Tran: For example, where it would fit into a customer [overtalking].

>> Clint Crosier: A lot of different capabilities.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah, yeah, yep.

>> Jim Tran: Mission profile. So going back to your original comment. You said, I used to use the phones. Well, we also have internet-capable devices, we have more broadband-capable devices, but we're also finding that a lot of our partners, and I do want to highlight that, because we're constantly signing up new partners.

>> Maria Varmazis: Sure.

>> Jim Tran: They're starting to realize how we can augment their missions as well. And if we're- we're all familiar, of course, being out here in- in- in Colorado Springs, the term PACE, PACE plan.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep.

>> Jim Tran: Where we fit. So there's lots of primary alternative communications out there that are heavy lifters, but what happens when you are in a wet environment? You're going to need something that's resilient, reliant, always works.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep.

>> Jim Tran: Which is what Iridium's very proud of, to be the C or the E, the contingency or the emergency part of the PACE plan. So we have so many partners, and we're continuing to sign up new ones. Be on the lookout over the next few weeks.

>> Maria Varmazis: Alright.

>> Clint Crosier: Oh, that's exciting.

>> Jim Tran: To something impressive that's coming.

>> Maria Varmazis: Oh, that's exciting. There we go, right?

>> Clint Crosier: That's exciting. So- so the always works piece is really interesting to me, too. So two things. One, you know, you are and have been a, a world leader, a global leader in narrowband IOT capability. And the- the win-win piece, you know, back on Iridium CloudConnect. The win-win piece is you've got world-leading capability for narrowband IOT, device management, internet of things. You know, and I read something the other day that- that experts believe that there will be some 50 billion devices connected in the IOT environment in the next five years.

>> Maria Varmazis: That's amazing, isn't it.

>> Clint Crosier: I can't even get my head around that.

>> Maria Varmazis: That's crazy, yep.

>> Clint Crosier: And even if they're off by 10%, so it's 45 billion, I don't know?

>> Maria Varmazis: [Laughter], who's counting at that point?

>> Jim Tran: Very [overtalking] numbers.

>> Clint Crosier: Right?

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Clint Crosier: So, so I mean world leader. And then, when you think about, so- so you've got that world-leading capability, and- and we have hundreds of thousands of customers, millions of customers, who are thirsty for an IOT capability to connect their devices, and already building and operating on the AWS cloud. Where the win-win comes together is we have some customers, remote oil and gas, remote agriculture, et cetera. And so we sort of had a gap in the- the AWS cloud is almost everywhere, but not everywhere, but you, with your 66-ball constellation, as we say, global coverage on the LEO side, you can provide that last tactical mile, that last tactical foot, if you will, so you're literally connecting disadvantaged users that want to use narrowband IOT but just didn't have that last mile access to the cloud. Iridium provides that.

>> Jim Tran: Right.

>> Clint Crosier: And it sort of, you know, it closes the loop on both sides of- of the mission.

>> Jim Tran: I couldn't have sold that better myself, honestly.

>> Maria Varmazis: [Laughter], that's great, then, [laughter].

>> Jim Tran: Yeah, the reality is, we do rely very heavily on our partnership.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: To really create that optimal capability and performance to the edge. And you're absolutely right. Some of the use cases there, it's not just a, you know, the aforementioned solutions, but even tracking cattle, for example.

>> Maria Varmazis: Hmm.

>> Clint Crosier: Oh yeah, yeah.

>> Jim Tran: And figuring out, you know, migration of animals, for example. There's so many different applications out there. But it's- it's- it's a lot more than, of course, just the commercial or the government side. It's really connecting the entire planet. And- and I agree, that number will probably rapidly.

>> Clint Crosier: Oh, I think it will.

>> Jim Tran: Outpace, yeah.

>> Clint Crosier: I think it's low. Yeah, I think it's low. By the way, when you talk about tracking cattle, the ways, Jim, over the course of our careers and our lifetimes, the ways we're seeing, I would never have envisioned the ways we're using space data today.

>> Jim Tran: Right.

>> Clint Crosier: I mean, five years ago, ten years, I never would have thought, but it's due to innovation like companies like yours that are helping unlock. We- we- at AWS, we call it, you know, we- we do a couple of missions. One of my key focus areas as the space business leader at AWS is this line of effort, line of work I call making the world a better place from space.

>> Maria Varmazis: Nice, [laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: And so that's what you've just described, right? All these ways we're making the world a better place from space. You also mentioned always on, always connected, and I want to underscore that for a second. I'll get a little geeky here, just for a second.

>> Maria Varmazis: Please, we love that, [laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: But- but you operate on the L-band, right?

>> Jim Tran: That's right.

>> Clint Crosier: And so what's really excited [overtalking].

>> Maria Varmazis: Working in L-band, K-band, [overtalking], yeah, yep.

>> Clint Crosier: What's really exciting about the L-band is the L-band is the most durable in terms of weather phenomena.

>> Maria Varmazis: Hmm, there you go.

>> Jim Tran: That's right.

>> Clint Crosier: And by the way, that's why, again, former commander of the GPS satellite constellation, that's why your GPS that you use day, night, snow, rain, wind, hail, always operates, operates on the L-band.

>> Maria Varmazis: There you go.

>> Clint Crosier: And so they're operating on the same band that- that we know provides the best capability.

>> Maria Varmazis: I did not know that.

>> Clint Crosier: All-weather, day and night.

>> Maria Varmazis: Thank you for that, [laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: Inclement, everything else. So when you say always on, always connected, it truly is, more than any other signal.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: Well, thank you for that. There's also a lot of capabilities too, and this is, I think, the interesting part about our relationship, and you guys are also getting read on while the rest of the world is too. So, L-band being very resilient, especially in- in wet environments or inclement weather environments, but there's other capabilities onboard. Namely we have GPS denial of service.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep.

>> Jim Tran: Attack-capable solutions.

>> Maria Varmazis: Always a problem, right? Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: Well, especially now.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: And if you're looking at how geopolitics is realigning itself all around the world.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep.

>> Jim Tran: I can cite very specific instances, and maybe I won't go into full detail, but GPS denial of service attacks are getting more and more prolific.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yes.

>> Jim Tran: So much so that they are taking out different- different-size regions of different parts of the world.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yes.

>> Jim Tran: So why is that important? Well, there's not just a tactical requirement, but practically everything on the planet also relies on GPS timing.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yes.

>> Jim Tran: To- to operate.

>> Maria Varmazis: That's true, yep, yep.

>> Clint Crosier: True.

>> Jim Tran: So whether you're a utility company.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: A cellphone company, an energy company of some other sort.

>> Clint Crosier: Swiping your credit card at the gas pump.

>> Jim Tran: Absolutely.

>> Clint Crosier: Requires GPS timing signals.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep.

>> Jim Tran: So for- for a different environment, we can certainly get into it, but the- the capabilities that we have onboard and what we can provide to augment the requirements out there is very prolific and certainly something.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: That has commercial, humanitarian, as well as tactical ramifications.

>> Maria Varmazis: Can you get into that at all? I mean, I'd love to hear a little more about that.

>> Jim Tran: Well, maybe a little bit.

>> Maria Varmazis: Whatever you can. Maybe, a little, whatever you can, we- I'd love to hear a little more.

>> Jim Tran: So, we'll- we'll speak in general terms.

>> Maria Varmazis: Absolutely.

>> Jim Tran: Through our recent acquisition of Satelles, of which they've been an onboard capability.

>> Clint Crosier: That's exciting, yeah.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep.

>> Jim Tran: Absolutely, and we are so thrilled to have them. It's been an onboard capability, but they're- they're officially within the Iridium family now.

>> Maria Varmazis: Understood.

>> Jim Tran: So what we are calling it- we're calling it Iridium PNT, or STL, but essentially position, navigation, and timing, that provides alternative GPS, always on, so that you don't have to rely on GPS, especially if the adversaries per se.

>> Maria Varmazis: Understood.

>> Jim Tran: Are jamming it, and they're jamming it to such a high rate.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: The good thing is that, even when you jam, and sir, I know you know this, it's- it's a finite amount of time.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: You can't just keep things on, jamming endlessly.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: But at some point here, why even bother with that? Let's create the alternative solution today that they can't jam, and then make sure that we don't have to have disruption again in our daily lives.

>> Maria Varmazis: Okay.

>> Clint Crosier: We- we always want resiliency and redundancy, in any mission, by the way, whether it's weather or ISR, or space-based observation, whatever. We always resiliency and redundancy, and you provide that. You're bringing that, not only with the new Satelles, but- but I think you'll agree, having built on AWS, we provide sort of that global resiliency and redundancy to operate your constellation.

>> Jim Tran: So that's another great point. So with AWS, it's not just what we're doing commercially. There's also ramifications to the government.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: We are the EMSS contract holder.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: That is a specific contract that supports all U.S. government end-users.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Clint Crosier: Enhanced mobile satellite service.

>> Maria Varmazis: Thank you, yeah.

>> Jim Tran: Correct.

>> Maria Varmazis: Thank you very much.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah, enhanced mobile satellite service.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep, [laughter].

>> Jim Tran: Precisely. Thank you. So the reality is that, we call it the DoD's family plan.

>> Maria Varmazis: [Laughter].

>> Jim Tran: Whether it's one user, or a million users.

>> Clint Crosier: No, it's true.

>> Jim Tran: It's already a fixed cost.

>> Maria Varmazis: Nice.

>> Jim Tran: That everyone should take and benefit. Well, what's also important to realize is that those government end-users, while I can see, and really I- I have this amazing global footprint. In fact, if I ever showed you a picture, an instantaneous picture of how many Iridium devices are on at any given time of the day, millions. I think we're up to 2.6 million subscribers right now.

>> Maria Varmazis: Wow, yep, yeah, wow.

>> Clint Crosier: Wow, wow.

>> Jim Tran: But I can see all of those guys, but what I can't see are the many hundreds of thousands of DoD and coalition partners, because what we want to do is make sure we're protecting our end-users so that they aren't visible to different partners.

>> Maria Varmazis: Of course.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah, yeah.

>> Jim Tran: They're not visible to different actors out there. But what's important about that is, you could be anywhere on the planet, as a DoD or coalition partner user, and the entire traffic will traverse bird to bird, all the way across, bird's an old term, we like to say space vehicles.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: But it will traverse the entire network and only land in one location, which is, of course, Hawaii, where we are also very connected and working together, not only for current capabilities to deliver tactical communications to the edge.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Jim Tran: But we're now also talking about what the next generation offering looks like. So we are very tied at the hip, not only for what we're doing commercially, but certainly for the government side as well.

>> Maria Varmazis: Absolutely.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah, so everybody wants security and privacy, right? Whether it's a government user or individual users. Farmers that don't want competitors know, you know, where their- where their livestock is at. Whatever the case may be.

>> Jim Tran: Or where they're feeding, that's right.

>> Clint Crosier: Or where they're feeding.

>> Maria Varmazis: Any reason is a good reason, really.

>> Clint Crosier: Any reason. We all want, we all want security.

>> Maria Varmazis: Of course.

>> Clint Crosier: And we all want privacy. And what you've just said that I sort of love about this partnership that we've built together too, to underscore is, because you have global coverage with your 66-ball, you know, 66-satellite constellation, because you have global coverage, and by the way, some on-orbit spares too.

>> Jim Tran: That's right.

>> Clint Crosier: Which is always a good plan as well, in terms of resiliency and redundancy. But because you do, and the way you've architected with AWS, when you land your data, when you land your traffic, it never touches the public internet. Right? Because it lands directly to your site, and then we have a direct connection between your site and AWS.

>> Maria Varmazis: Ah.

>> Clint Crosier: Private connection, us and you, nobody else has access to that.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep.

>> Clint Crosier: And so customers can be assured that when they're using Iridium on AWS, not only do you get the world-class security encryption that comes in your capability and ours, but you never touch the private internet. It's in a closed system the whole time.

>> Jim Tran: That's right. Yeah. Total security to the edge for the end-users, especially those with the most important mission.

>> Maria Varmazis: Absolutely.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah. The other thing I really like, Jim, and maybe you can talk about what this has meant for you, is you know, there are- there are millions of users around the globe. You know, everybody from my- my wife bought a new refrigerator last year, and it's IOT-connected.

>> Maria Varmazis: Is it internet-enabled? Oh fun, [laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: Right? We could- we can- we can be at the grocery store and she can pull up the camera and say oh, I'm out of milk, because you've got, alright?

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Clint Crosier: I mean, so, you know, it's everywhere.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yep.

>> Clint Crosier: But as we think about all that capability, and we think about, you know, so- so that is growing, like you said, 46 billion might be an understatement. But everybody who wants to use that IOT capability, when they want to complete the last tactical mile, if you will, they don't know how to go out and provision a- a- a- a satellite provider. Right? They have no idea how to go do that, but because we've built it together, if you're an AWS user using AWS IOT capability, we can connect you, internal to the family, to that last tactical mile and get you started in space communications, when you don't even know what space communications is, right?

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Clint Crosier: And that makes it super easy to add more customers to your mission set.

>> Jim Tran: Yeah, I can't pre-telegraph too much, but be on the lookout to see the various different developmental capabilities we're working with different partners on right now that will absolutely light up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands.

>> Maria Varmazis: Wow.

>> Jim Tran: Maybe even millions of different types of end-users, of course all reliant on IOT and- and pushing different capabilities out there.

>> Maria Varmazis: That's exciting.

>> Clint Crosier: That is exciting.

>> Maria Varmazis: And Clint, I love you refer to it as a family. I- I think that really speaks to the strength of the partnership here.

>> Jim Tran: It really does.

>> Maria Varmazis: It really does. That's a.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah. It is, and- and Jim- Jim has gotten us all excited about, you know, I'm aware of some, but I'm curious to see whether there's some other things coming that I might not know about, which would be great. But- but what that highlights too, by the way, as I think about it, everything that we've been describing, when we think about the excitements in technology today, you know, space captures everybody's imagination.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yes.

>> Clint Crosier: Telco, right? Telecommunications, and then IOT. Those are three technology areas that are really growing, really booming, and everything we're doing together sort of circles in that orbit, space pun intended, right? Circles in that orbit of space telco.

>> Maria Varmazis: [Laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: I got a laugh, right?

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Clint Crosier: Space telco, it was a late laugh, but I got a laugh.

>> Maria Varmazis: It took me a second, but I, [laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: Space telco and IOT, and so, you know, all those leading technologies coming together. And by the way, you're leaning into 5G, right, in a big way as well.

>> Maria Varmazis: Hmm.

>> Clint Crosier: And so that's going to connect yet another rapidly-growing industry, part of the mission family as well.

>> Jim Tran: Yeah, so we are absolutely leaning forward 5G, looking at different alternatives, and NTN type of activities. The reality is, our network today is perfectly supportive of a lot of the solutions and capabilities out there, especially when you are beyond line-of-sight, which is part of the draw.

>> Maria Varmazis: Uh huh, yep.

>> Jim Tran: There's also, perhaps, a more serious side of that, and it's not only adopting and making sure that we support the current standards, but making sure we're also there to evolve for future standards.

>> Clint Crosier: Uh huh.

>> Jim Tran: So we are- we're very considerate, and our partnerships today, and our discussions are encompassing not only what is important today, but also looking at 3, 5, even 10 years down the road.

>> Clint Crosier: Scalability and flexibility. We have to build future capabilities together, not just to satisfy the technical requirement today, but can expand flexibly and scalably, as I said, to grow into what? Because the industry is changing so fast.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah, sure is, yep.

>> Jim Tran: That's right.

>> Clint Crosier: So you have to build it in a way that it can be modular and scalable.

>> Maria Varmazis: Yeah.

>> Clint Crosier: And you're doing that, and I- that's wonderful. I love seeing that.

>> Maria Varmazis: I've been really enjoying listening to the two of you. You clearly have a wonderful working relationship. It's fantastic, and I think it just speaks so well to how well Iridium and AWS work together to do so much for their customers, so it's just really been fantastic. I know we're coming up on time. It has flown by. I want to make sure I give you each a chance to, like, give us some parting thoughts. So Clint, can you get, how about you start?

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah, well, again, thanks Jim for being here. I really appreciate you- your personal presence and appreciate the partnership that we've had with Iridium over the last number of years. I will tell you, sort of on a personal note, I'm coming up on four years with AWS, and I will tell you, in my first 30 days, the first big project I worked in my first 30 days, four years ago.

>> Jim Tran: I remember when you started at AWS.

>> Clint Crosier: Was the announcement of Iridium CloudConnect.

>> Maria Varmazis: Oh, wow.

>> Clint Crosier: That was my first project at AWS, so that's very exciting. But, hey, space is rapidly growing. I mean, space is exciting. You know, our- our tagline, space is cool. That's what I tell people all the time.

>> Maria Varmazis: [Laughter].

>> Clint Crosier: Space is cool, space is fun, space is exciting, but when you bring world-leading space capability like what Iridium offers, and world-leading cloud capability, which- which we believe AWS offers, and you bring those two things together, we're- we're set out to create a new industry within an industry. My team, my- my mission. The space cloud industry. And so when you bring space experts and cloud experts together the way we've been able to do, it unlocks extraordinary innovation for the future, and that's the piece I'm most excited about.

>> Maria Varmazis: It is very exciting. Jim, you get the last word.

>> Jim Tran: Well, I mean, first and foremost, obviously it's that partnership that we've talked about over and over again is very important to us. As a company, we're of course not only committed to our end customers, but also pushing the envelope, constantly evolving, bringing new capabilities and solutions out there that are meaningful and will benefit in a positive way. And, you know, again, just thank you for the opportunity, and just continuing to work with AWS is obviously very important to us.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah, it's our pleasure.

>> Maria Varmazis: Well.

>> Clint Crosier: And keep posted for the next big announcement, right?

>> Maria Varmazis: Seriously.

>> Clint Crosier: Watch here, it sounds like.

>> Maria Varmazis: I know, right? I'm excited to learn what that is, so I guess we'll stay tuned for that. Well, Jim and Clint, gentlemen, thank you so much for joining me today, it's been a pleasure.

>> Jim Tran: Thank you.

>> Clint Crosier: Yeah, and thank you, Maria.

>> Maria Varmazis: Thank you.

>> Clint Crosier: Thank you.

>> Maria Varmazis: Thank you very much.

>> Clint Crosier: Appreciate it. Thanks.

>> Maria Varmazis: [Laughter], thanks so much.

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>> Maria Varmazis: This episode was produced by Alice Carruth and Laura Barber for AWS Aerospace and Satellite. Mixing by Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester, with original music and sound design by Elliott Peltzman. Our associate producer is Liz Stokes. Our executive producer is Jen Eiben. Our VP is Brandon Karpf, and I'm Maria Varmazis. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

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