The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved Amazon’s request to deploy an additional 4,500 low‑Earth‑orbit satellites, pushing the company’s authorised constellation to roughly 7,700 spacecraft. Amazon says it aims to begin offering satellite internet later this year through its LEO service, known internally as Kuiper or “Leo,” a project first announced in 2019 and now moving from test flights toward commercial roll‑out.
The newly authorised batch will form part of Amazon’s second‑generation orbital system operating at roughly 400 miles altitude and equipped to support additional frequency bands and broader coverage. Since last April the company has placed more than 150 satellites into orbit using a range of launch providers; the second‑generation craft are intended to boost capacity and expand service footprints beyond the initial constellation.
Amazon faces regulatory build‑out deadlines that require it to place half of its authorised satellites into orbit by 10 February 2032 and the remainder by 10 February 2035. The company has asked the FCC either to extend the deadline for deploying 1,600 first‑generation satellites to July 2028 or to waive it entirely, saying that a shortage of available rockets — not manufacturing — is the primary constraint on its pace of deployment.
To accelerate launches, Amazon has bought capacity from multiple providers, including up to ten Falcon 9 flights from SpaceX and a string of ArianeGroup missions; another Ariane launch carrying 32 Kuiper satellites is scheduled this week, and Amazon has reserved many more flights. The company also plans heavier launch cadences: an additional $1 billion of investment is expected in the first quarter and the finance chief anticipates more than 20 launches in 2026 and over 30 in 2027.
The expansion comes in the shadow of SpaceX’s far larger ambitions. In late January the FCC disclosed SpaceX’s application for a system of up to 1 million satellites — pitched as a platform to deliver enormous distributed computing power for artificial intelligence and data‑centre tasks — a proposal that would operate at higher altitudes and much greater scale than Amazon’s Kuiper plan.
The contest between Amazon and SpaceX is reshaping the commercial space landscape. Scale advantages, frequency and orbital allocation, and the cost of launches (which could fall further if Starship reaches routine operations) will determine winners and losers. Amazon’s willingness to buy launches from its rival underscores how commercial launch markets and satellite operators are increasingly interdependent even as they vie for market share.
Beyond commercial rivalry, regulators and governments will face growing pressure to police orbital congestion, spectrum allocation and collision risk. Tens of thousands of additional satellites would intensify concerns about space debris and the resilience of global communications infrastructure in crises. For customers, more capacity promises cheaper, faster global connectivity; for policymakers, it raises questions about cross‑border regulation, national security, and the environmental carrying capacity of key orbital bands.
What to watch next is straightforward: whether the FCC grants Amazon’s deadline relief, whether Kuiper can meet its public launch cadence, and how SpaceX’s Starship and its proposed giant constellation reshape launch economics and the technical requirements for global satellite internet. The next 18–36 months will be decisive for who can scale satellite broadband into a mass market while managing the operational and regulatory headaches of a far busier sky.