(Credit: Amazon Leo)
Facing a looming deadline, Amazon is urging a federal regulator to grant an extension for its Starlink competitor, Leo, arguing that only SpaceX opposes the proposal.
Amazon raised the matter in a 22-page filing with the Federal Communications Commission, which has mandated that the company launch 1,600 satellites by July 30. If it doesn’t, Amazon risks losing the authority to launch any new satellites for its planned constellation of 3,200, diminishing its broadband coverage.
Amazon expects to fall far short of the requirement, so in January it asked the FCC to grant a 24-month extension or a waiver. In Tuesday's filing, the company points out that several industry groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce and Software & Information Industry Association, have also sent letters to the commission in support of the reprieve.
Amazon’s filing adds that the “sole commenter disagreeing” with the extension request is SpaceX, which has called on the FCC to avoid giving any “special treatment.” Earlier this month, the company submitted another filing that blamed Amazon for all the delays.
“Amazon failed to mention that over the past six years, it launched barely 6% of the satellites that it pressured the Commission to approve ahead of its competitors,” SpaceX told the FCC. Leo currently has about 200 satellites in orbit; it expects to hit 700 by late July.
(Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)Amazon notes that SpaceX isn’t asking the FCC to prevent it from launching new satellites. Instead, it argues Amazon should be forced to submit a modification application, deferring the satellites to “the next processing round,” under FCC rules.
“This balanced approach allows Amazon to continue deploying its system to benefit American consumers without unfairly punishing other systems that did meet their milestones,” SpaceX told the commission, later adding. “Granting Amazon’s modification would permit it to deploy over 80% more satellites than it would be permitted to deploy if capped. An increase in the number of satellites of this magnitude will necessarily cause significant interference problems for other operators and their systems.”
However, Amazon says SpaceX’s proposal amounts to letting additional Leo satellites fly up, “but with downgraded spectrum priority.” That’s because under FCC rules, satellites approved in later processing rounds must “operate compatibly with, and protect” low-Earth satellite constellations approved in earlier processing rounds, including from radio interference.
“The effect of this remedy would be indistinguishable from a denial,” Amazon says, later adding: “Extension requests do not create significant interference issues. Delays in Amazon Leo’s deployment have only prolonged the period during which other operators enjoy reduced sharing obligations.”
Amazon’s filing goes on to say that granting a reprieve would benefit the “public interest” since Leo has been designed to offer high-speed satellite broadband, offering an alternative to Starlink. “Additional competition and high-quality services will advantage consumers, the US economy, and national security,” the company added.
Amazon also blamed the satellite delays on factors “outside its control,” including how it enlisted three new rocket vehicles to send up the Leo satellites. “No operator could have predicted that all three core heavy-lift launch programs—Ariane 6, New Glenn, and Vulcan Centaur—would experience repeated, concurrent scheduling slips severe enough to exhaust the buffers Amazon Leo had built in,” the company wrote.
However, SpaceX told the FCC: “Amazon repeatedly bet on unproven launch vehicles just so it could harm its competitor (SpaceX) before being forced by its own shareholders to secure proven technology,” alluding to how Amazon eventually tapped SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
Although it remains unclear whether the FCC will grant Amazon relief, the commission last month did greenlight the company’s proposal for a second-generation Leo constellation, allowing it to launch an additional 4,504 satellites into low-Earth orbit. This week, Amazon also announced it’s preparing to double the launch cadence for Leo satellites. The company previously told the FCC it has “more than 100 missions planned through Q1 2029.”