Amazon is asking for an extension to deploy its Starlink competitor, Leo, and admits it won’t hit a deadline to operate half of the satellite constellation by this July.
On Friday, the company filed the extension with the Federal Communications Commission, which greenlit the satellite internet system back in 2020. As a condition, Amazon was supposed to launch and operate half of the 3,200 satellite constellation by July 30th, 2026, otherwise it risked losing authorization to complete the network.
But according to the filing, the company only expects to have about 700 satellites in orbit by the deadline —far short of the needed 1,600. As of today, the Leo constellation only spans 180 satellites.
In response, Amazon is asking the FCC for a 2-year extension to reach the 50% milestone, or for the Commission to grant a waiver to the requirement. To prove that it can launch the satellites in time, the company says it’s “procured far more launch dates than necessary to deploy the first-generation Amazon Leo system by 2029” in an effort to prevent further delay.
(PCMag/Michael Kan)
“Amazon Leo executed the largest commercial procurement of launch capacity in history—it now has a manifest with more than 100 missions planned through Q1 2029,” the company wrote. “This equates to an average of three planned launches per month for the next three years, each of which will carry an average of more than 40 new satellites into low-Earth orbit.”
In addition, Amazon says it’s storing “hundreds of already-built-and-ready-to-launch satellites,” near the launch sites. The filing also hints that the company plans to start serving users by the July 30th deadline, although not necessarily consumers.
“By this date, Amazon Leo also expects to have its customer terminals in the hands of more enterprise and government customers, and to be poised to roll out service more broadly in the US and across the globe,” the filing says.
The FCC will likely grant the extension since the regulator already views both Starlink and Leo as an important way to deliver gigabit internet to US users in remote and rural areas. Leo has also been picked to supply internet to underserved areas as part of the federal BEAD program.
Amazon further notes “strict enforcement would interrupt or halt this effort — stripping Amazon Leo of authority to launch the undeployed portion of its system until it secures a new license from the Commission.”
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy
Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
The extension request isn’t a surprise. Over the years, Amazon’s Starlink rival has faced several delays in launching the company’s satellites, which even sparked a lawsuit. Unlike SpaceX, which has its own Falcon 9 rocket, Amazon initially contracted to use Arianespace, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance to send up the satellites. But the launch providers have faced their own delays including for their newest rockets.
In late 2023, Amazon then decided to secure some launches from SpaceX. Still, in the Friday FCC filing, the company noted that “Leo has faced a shortage in the near-term availability of launches. This shortage has been driven by manufacturing disruptions, the failure and grounding of new launch vehicles, and limitations in spaceport capacity.” As a result, the company could only complete seven of the more than 20 launches originally scheduled for 2025.
Amazon also attributed part of the problems to “unexpected reengineering to improve performance and reliability” of its Leo satellites after sending up two prototypes. The overhaul led to a “delayed full-scale manufacturing by approximately nine months.”
Recommended by Our Editors
The 25-page filing goes on to say that Amazon has already invested “well over $10 billion” to deploy Leo, “including contractual commitments for billions of dollars to secure launch contracts through Q1 2029.” The company is also producing multiple Leo satellites per day, and says the launch bottleneck appears to be easing, pointing to recent successful rocket launches from Blue Origin, Arianespace and United Launch Alliance. Arainespace is also scheduled to launch 32 satellites on Feb. 12th.
The filing adds: “The Commission’s rules allow for an extension of satellite milestones where the delay is due to ‘unforeseeable circumstances beyond the applicant’s control’ or ‘unique and overriding public interest concerns . . . justify an extension.’ Amazon Leo’s request merits an extension under either prong of this standard.”
Satellite industry analyst Tim Farrar points out the filing arrives days after Blue Origin announced its own Starlink competitor, TeraWave. The next-generation satellite internet system is only meant for enterprise and government customers, but it’s being designed to offer speeds that can hit up to 166Gbps and even terabit-level performance. In contrast, Amazon Leo plans on offering broadband ranging from 100Mbps to 400Mbps and up to 1Gbps.
In a tweet, Farrar said, “It doesn’t seem particularly wise for Amazon to plan on launching 3,200 of the current design,” while noting that SpaceX is preparing to upgrade Starlink with its own V3 gigabit-capable satellites.
“However, it will at least quiet any questions about Amazon Leo’s future for now,” he added. “That’s really important when Amazon Leo is trying hard to win customer commitments in the coming months, especially after recent layoffs at the company.”
About Our Expert
Michael Kan
Senior Reporter
Experience
I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this year, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how President Trump’s tariffs will affect the industry. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
Read Full Bio
