Amazon’s Starlink Competitor Leo Gets A New Date

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says nan company’s space-internet work Leo (formerly known arsenic Project Kuiper) will “launch successful mid-2026.” I’m going to presume that intends due commercialized readiness since nan institution already announced nan commencement of an “enterprise preview” astatine nan extremity of 2025, erstwhile nan work was expected to primitively launch.

Unlike SpaceX’s Starlink service, Amazon doesn’t (yet) person its ain fleet of rockets to regularly nonstop Leo satellites into low-Earth orbit. That’s meant hitching rides pinch a assortment of motorboat partners, including SpaceX, until Jeff Bezos’s ain reusable New Glenn rocket is afloat operational.

Amazon has FCC support for 3,236 Leo satellites, but has only launched 241 truthful far, good beneath its committedness to person half (1,618) of its constellation deployed by July 2026. As such, Amazon has had to request FCC Chair Brendan Carr for an extension. For comparison, SpaceX’s progressive Starlink constellation presently totals complete 10,000 satellites.

Whenever nan Leo work does yet spell live, Jassy says it will beryllium faster than existing services and costs less, pinch nan added use of integrating seamlessly pinch AWS truthful that businesses and governments tin “move information backmost and distant for storage, analytics, and AI.”

Late arsenic it is, location are galore individuals, enterprises, and nations just waiting connected an Elon Musk alternative that tin beryllium installed quickly and economically to capable gaps successful world information coverage, moreover if it does mean casting their batch pinch different problematic billionaire.