Amazon told the FCC it needs a 24-month extension to meet Leo’s launch milestone for July, 2026
In sum — what to know:
Missed milestone: Amazon has requested FCC to extend deadline for launching the first 1,618 Leo satellites to July, 2028
Execution hurdles: The company said in a filing that launch delays were caused by a host of unavoidable issues, including capacity crunch, need for “reengineering”, and weather troubles.
SpaceX’s warning: SpaceX, in separate filing, warns FCC that a modification might lead to complications for other provides, and urges it to push back
Amazon is seeking an extension — or alternatively, a milestone waiver — for the deployment of Leo satellites. In a petition to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the provider acknowledged that it won’t be able to meet the July deadline for launching the first half of the constellation, and asked for an extension of 24 months.
“From the launch of its initial production satellites onward, unexpected slips and scrubs of scheduled launch dates have extended Amazon Leo’s deployment timeline,” the petition read. “Some delays pushed initial launch dates years beyond their original projections, resulting in significant backlogs that in some cases ballooned after additional issues delayed subsequent missions.”
The company cited adverse weather conditions, prioritization of government launches, technical issues with contracted launchers, and ridesharing with other operators as the reasons for delay.
“Though Amazon Leo either had or could have produced the satellites necessary to meet the dates in its original manifest, these production launch issues delayed Amazon Leo’s deployment schedule by a year or more,” the company wrote.
Back in 2020, when the FCC approved Leo, the terms were clear — half the constellation, ie., 1,618 satellites must go up by July of 2026. Failing to do so might cause Amazon to lose authorization of the network.
According to the current filing, Amazon said it expects to meet less than half (700, counting the 180 Leo satellites in-orbit right now) that count by the end of 2026. With an extended date of July, 2028 however, it will fully make the milestone.
In order to prevent further delays, Amazon said it has “procured far more launch dates than necessary to deploy the first-generation Amazon Leo system by 2029” and diversified its launch options.
The decision to move forward with the current constellation when rival provider Starlink is on the way to upgrade to next-gen V3 systems did not sit well with some. “It doesn’t seem particularly wise for Amazon to plan on launching 3200 of the current design, rather than moving to a more advanced model that will be more competitive with Starlink V3,” Tim Farrar, analyst at TMF Associates, tweeted on X. “However, it will at least quiet any questions about Amazon Leo’s future for now,” .
Amazon attempted to make a case for itself by citing past instances where the Commission granted extensions: three times to Viasat for its buildout milestone, and Hughes Network for launching the Jupiter 3 satellite.
But aside from these, there is an even bigger reason why FCC’s verdict may be in favor of Amazon. The company has secured Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) bids worth $300 million which gives the FCC an added reason to approve the request, not to mention Amazon’s presence allow it to curb Starlink’s growing dominance.
Roger Entner, analyst and founder at Recon Analytics, who predicted a launch bottleneck during his last conversation with us said, “Amazon will get an extension with conditions. Leo is a critical part of BEAD and connects rural America. There is no way around it or the whole BEAD program needs to be redone again.”
SpaceX’s objection
Just days after the petition came, Starlink clapped back in a separate FCC filing where it called out Amazon’s plea, “its latest gambit to get special treatment at the expense of others trying to provide services to Americans,” adding that a modification of the milestone would increase interference with other operators.
And then some of it is just payback. “Tellingly, Amazon routinely opposed its competitors’ requests for milestone extensions and for similar reasons in the past,” Starlink wrote. “Fortunately, the Commission has an opportunity to finally put an end to this gamesmanship by simply treating all of these filings as modifications under its existing precedent.”
