Amazon has deployed enough satellites to launch Leo service this year

Amazon He said there are enough satellites in orbit to begin “initial service” of Leo’s space-based internet network later this year.

The company shipped 29 satellites It will enter orbit atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket around 12:30 a.m. Thursday. Chris Weber, Amazon Leo’s vice president of business and product, wrote that the mission brings Amazon’s total constellation to more than 390 satellites, which is “sufficient to support continuous service throughout the home latitudes.” a post on x.

It’s an important turning point for Amazon as the company tries to turn Leo into a rival. SpaceXStarlink in the low Earth orbit satellite market. In November, Amazon began rolling out an “enterprise preview” of Leo for select businesses but has yet to launch its service to consumers and government customers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“With hundreds of flight-ready satellites waiting 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 accelerate launch and deployment tempo, helping us rapidly expand network coverage following initial service rollout later this year,” Melissa Wuerl, Leo’s launch systems manager, said in a statement. he said.

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