Amazon Leo still tracking for 2026 service launch as satellite production ramps

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Amazon Leo whiffed on its original plan to launch services by mid-2026, but the company says it remains on track to get there later this year as it continues to accelerate the buildout of its fleet of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.

Amazon Leo has deployed 396 broadband satellites via 14 launches so far, with only four that have been deorbited, company communications manager Zack Brown explained in this blog post.

The current, deployed fleet is big enough for Amazon Leo to proceed with an initial service launch. Amazon Leo has not announced a specific date, but it still expects to pull the trigger before the end of the year.

"We're still doing work to raise them into final position, and…there's a lot of work on the ground to do. But the plan is to launch initial service in 2026," Chris Weber, VP of business and product at Amazon Leo, told Ars Technica.

Amazon Leo also has yet to reveal pricing and how it will market the service. Weber told Ars Technica that there could be some ways to pair Amazon Leo with other Amazon services and products, including Amazon Prime/Prime Video subscriptions, eero routers and extenders, Ring doorbells and Fire TV devices.

Related:Amazon Leo gets a satellite deployment extension

1,000th Amazon Leo satellite recently came off the line

The overall Amazon Leo program has built more than 1,000 satellites at its 172,000-square-foot production facility in Kirkland, Washington. Brown noted that completed Amazon Leo satellites are shipped to Florida every two or three days.

The facility in Kirkland has the capacity to produce five satellites per day, providing enough to ensure a "a steady supply of satellites is ready for upcoming missions," Brown explained.

Amazon Leo VP Rajeev Badyal told Ars Technica the company's ability to build satellites has been accelerating. "It took us six months to make our first 27 satellites. Now we can easily make 27 a week. That's how far we've come," he said.

Deployment in the early stages

Amazon Leo's current deployment represents only a small fraction of its plan to build and deploy a constellation of 3,236 first-generation broadband satellites. Amazon Leo received a 24-month extension on the first half of that buildout from the FCC in June, but it is retaining its commitment to deploy 100% of its planned constellation by July 30, 2029. When Amazon Leo applied for that extension in early February, it said it expected to deploy about 700 satellites by the end of July 2026, so it appears to have missed the mark there as well.

But Amazon is building up launch capacity. Brown noted that the company has secured more than 100 launches across multiple partners, which include United Launch Alliance (ULA), Arianespace and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

Related:Amazon nets Globalstar for $11.5B, signs new Apple pact

Amazon Leo's deployment plan will hinge on the success and availability of newer rockets from partners that can carry larger payloads into orbit.

Badyal told Ars Technica that Amazon Leo is "weeks away" from its first launch on ULA's heavy-duty Vulcan rocket. Brown shared a similar timeline on Amazon Leo's plan to launch satellites via Arianespace's Ariane 6 vehicle, which can deliver 32-plus Amazon Leo satellites.

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, which exploded during a pre-launch test in May, is designed to carry even larger payloads.

Graphic illustrating how many Amazon Leo satellites can be deployed on different launch vehicles. (Source: Amazon Leo)

Separately, Amazon Leo has filed a plan with the FCC to deploy a constellation of more than 5,000 satellites for direct-to-device (D2D) services. Amazon is looking to jumpstart its D2D business via its pending acquisition of Globalstar.

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