Amazon has deployed enough satellites to launch Leo service later this year

Amazon said it now has enough satellites in orbit to begin “initial service” of its Leo internet-from-space network later this year.

The company shipped 29 satellites into orbit around 12:30 a.m. ET on Thursday atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The mission brings Amazon’s total constellation to more than 390 satellites, which is “enough to support continuous service across initial latitudes,” Chris Weber, vice president of business and product for Amazon Leo, wrote in a post on X.

It’s a key milestone for Amazon as the company tries to make Leo a competitor to SpaceX‘s Starlink in the low Earth orbit satellite market. In November, Amazon began offering an “enterprise preview” of Leo for select businesses, but it has yet to launch its service for consumers and government customers.

Amazon’s initial commercial service will likely be limited to users in certain geographies. Future missions will “add coverage and capacity,” Weber said.

SpaceX had a four-year head start on Amazon, launching Starlink in 2015. It has since amassed a constellation of around 10,000 satellites and more than 10 million subscribers. Amazon announced the creation of Kuiper in 2019, and later changed the name to Leo.

Amazon aims to build a constellation of roughly 7,700 satellites, but the effort has been slowed by a shortage of rocket capacity. In its January request for an extension on regulatory deployment deadlines, the company cited delays beyond its control, including a “shortage in the near-term availability” of rockets. Amazon in 2022 signed a historic deal to reserve rocket launches with ULA, Arianespace and Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin, before purchasing rides with SpaceX. Many of those providers have experienced delays with their launch vehicles.

Another setback came in May, when one of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rockets exploded on the launchpad during a hot-fire test, just days before it was slated to carry a batch of Amazon satellites. The company is currently rebuilding the pad, and working to determine what caused the anomaly.

Bezos and Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp have said the company is determined to return New Glenn to flight later this year. New Glenn is a giant, partially reusable rocket that seeks to compete with SpaceX’s Starship rocket and can carry heavier payloads of up to 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit.

Amazon said Thursday its next Leo mission will use ULA’s Vulcan heavy-lift rocket, “which will carry even larger Leo payloads and help increase our deployment rate.”

“With hundreds of flight-ready satellites standing by at the Cape and a new, dedicated vertical integration facility ready to support Leo Vulcan 1 and subsequent missions, we have a clear path to increase launch and deployment cadence, helping us quickly expand network coverage following an initial service rollout later this year,” Melissa Wuerl, Leo’s director of launch systems, said in a statement.

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