Amazon instructed the FCC it wants a 24-month extension to satisfy Leo’s launch milestone for July, 2026
In sum — what to know:
Missed milestone: Amazon has requested FCC to increase deadline for launching the primary 1,618 Leo satellites to July, 2028
Execution hurdles: The corporate stated in a submitting that launch delays have been attributable to a bunch of unavoidable points, together with capability crunch, want for “reengineering”, and climate troubles.
SpaceX’s warning: SpaceX, in separate submitting, warns FCC {that a} modification would possibly result in problems for different supplies, and urges it to push again
Amazon is in search of an extension — or alternatively, a milestone waiver — for the deployment of Leo satellites. In a petition to the Federal Communications Fee (FCC), the supplier acknowledged that it received’t be capable to meet the July deadline for launching the primary half of the constellation, and requested for an extension of 24 months.
“From the launch of its preliminary manufacturing satellites onward, surprising slips and scrubs of scheduled launch dates have prolonged Amazon Leo’s deployment timeline,” the petition learn. “Some delays pushed preliminary launch dates years past their authentic projections, leading to vital backlogs that in some instances ballooned after extra points delayed subsequent missions.”
The corporate cited antagonistic climate situations, prioritization of presidency launches, technical points with contracted launchers, and ridesharing with different operators as the explanations for delay.
“Although Amazon Leo both had or may have produced the satellites obligatory to satisfy the dates in its authentic manifest, these manufacturing launch points delayed Amazon Leo’s deployment schedule by a 12 months or extra,” the corporate wrote.
Again in 2020, when the FCC accepted Leo, the phrases have been clear — half the constellation, ie., 1,618 satellites should go up by July of 2026. Failing to take action would possibly trigger Amazon to lose authorization of the community.
In line with the present submitting, Amazon stated it expects to satisfy lower than half (700, counting the 180 Leo satellites in-orbit proper now) that rely by the top of 2026. With an prolonged date of July, 2028 nevertheless, it can totally make the milestone.
With a purpose to forestall additional delays, Amazon stated it has “procured much more launch dates than essential to deploy the first-generation Amazon Leo system by 2029” and diversified its launch choices.
The choice to maneuver ahead with the present constellation when rival supplier Starlink is on the way in which to improve to next-gen V3 methods didn’t sit nicely with some. “It doesn’t appear notably clever for Amazon to plan on launching 3200 of the present design, quite than transferring to a extra superior mannequin that will likely be extra aggressive with Starlink V3,” Tim Farrar, analyst at TMF Associates, tweeted on X. “Nonetheless, it can no less than quiet any questions on Amazon Leo’s future for now,” .
Amazon tried to make a case for itself by citing previous cases the place the Fee granted extensions: 3 times to Viasat for its buildout milestone, and Hughes Community for launching the Jupiter 3 satellite tv for pc.
However apart from these, there’s an excellent larger motive why FCC’s verdict could also be in favor of Amazon. The corporate has secured Broadband Fairness, Entry and Deployment (BEAD) bids value $300 million which provides the FCC an added motive to approve the request, to not point out Amazon’s presence enable it to curb Starlink’s rising dominance.
Roger Entner, analyst and founder at Recon Analytics, who predicted a launch bottleneck throughout his final dialog with us stated, “Amazon will get an extension with situations. Leo is a vital a part of BEAD and connects rural America. There isn’t a manner round it or the entire BEAD program must be redone once more.”
SpaceX’s objection
Simply days after the petition got here, Starlink clapped again in a separate FCC submitting the place it known as out Amazon’s plea, “its newest gambit to get particular remedy on the expense of others making an attempt to offer companies to People,” including {that a} modification of the milestone would enhance interference with different operators.
After which a few of it’s simply payback. “Tellingly, Amazon routinely opposed its opponents’ requests for milestone extensions and for comparable causes previously,” Starlink wrote. “Thankfully, the Fee has a possibility to lastly put an finish to this gamesmanship by merely treating all of those filings as modifications below its current precedent.”
