Amazon asks FCC for 2-year extension to Leo satellite deployment deadline, cites rocket shortage

Amazon says it’s been harder than expected to secure a ride on its Amazon Leo Internet satellites, and now it’s asking the Federal Communications Commission for more time.

The extension request, filed today, asks the FCC to give Amazon until July 30, 2028, to send part of its 3,232 satellites into the earth’s low Earth. The current deadline is July 30, 2026.

Amazon said it has spent more than $10 billion on its Leo constellation and has maintained more than 100 launches to get the satellites into their correct orbits. But it admitted it would miss the initial deadline, set for 2020 when the FCC gives initial approval for what was then known as Project Kuiper.

“Despite a history of conservative launch capacity and intensive investment in launch infrastructure, Amazon Leo faced a shortage of near-launch availability,” the company said. “This shortfall is due to production disruptions, failures and suspensions of new launch vehicles, and limited airport capacity.”

Citing the startup’s supply gap, Amazon said it had to reduce production at its satellite manufacturing facility in Kirkland, Wash. “Amazon Leo is capable of continuously producing 30 satellites per week – or more than 1,500 satellites per year,” the company said. “To date, Amazon Leo has produced hundreds of satellites that are fit for flight, and could not have produced a large number of this number but for the adjustment of its production schedule that was made due to the delay in its launch.”

The rocket shortage is not the only factor that has caused schedule delays. In the filing, Amazon said the satellite test mission launched in 2023 “confirmed the general design of Amazon Leo but led to unexpected redesigns to improve performance and reliability – a significant effort that delayed full implementation by nearly nine months.”

Amazon has had 180 production-grade satellites launched so far, on four United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets and three SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. The first heavy-lift launches on ULA’s Vulcan and the European-built Ariane 6 rocket should come in the next few months. Amazon has signed up for a dozen launches of Blue Origin’s heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. And in today’s filing, Amazon agreed to keep 10 Falcon 9 rockets in addition to the three already delivered.

By the end of July, Amazon expects to have 700 satellites in orbit. “Today, Amazon Leo also expects its customer centers to be in the hands of many customers and government customers, and is ready to roll out the service more widely in the US and around the world,” Amazon said.

Amazon has insisted it will meet the FCC’s deadline for all of its planned 3,232 satellites to be deployed by mid-2029. In the filing, the company suggested the agency could just go ahead and waive the point deadline as an additional option.

While the deadline extension request was widely expected, it comes at a time when the market for satellite Internet service is heating up. SpaceX’s Starlink network currently dominates that market, with more than 9,000 satellites launched and more than 9 million subscribers. And last week, Blue Origin announced that it is working on a high-speed satellite data network called TeraWave.

In a series of posts on the X social media platform, industry consultant Tim Farrar said the timing of the request “seems more than a coincidence after the announcement of Blue Origin TeraWave which led to speculation about the exit of Amazon Leo from BO. [Blue Origin].”

“It does not seem particularly wise that Amazon plans to launch 3,200 of the current design, rather than moving to a more advanced model that will be more competitive with the Starlink V3. However, it will at least put to rest any questions about the future of Amazon Leo for now,” wrote Farrar. “That’s especially important when Amazon Leo is trying hard to win customer commitments in the coming months, especially after the recent layoffs at the company.”