{"id":17057,"date":"2026-01-30T23:06:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/amazon-asks-fcc-for-2-year-extension-in-leo-satellite-deployment-deadline-citing-a-rocket-shortage\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T23:06:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:06:40","slug":"amazon-asks-fcc-for-2-year-extension-in-leo-satellite-deployment-deadline-citing-a-rocket-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/amazon-asks-fcc-for-2-year-extension-in-leo-satellite-deployment-deadline-citing-a-rocket-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon asks FCC for 2-year extension in Leo satellite deployment deadline, citing a rocket shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1260\" height=\"840\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260130-leolaunch-1260x840.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-912051\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260130-leolaunch-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260130-leolaunch-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260130-leolaunch-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260130-leolaunch.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">An Atlas 5 rocket rises from its Florida launch pad in December to send 27 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit. (United Launch Alliance Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amazon says it\u2019s been harder than expected to secure rides for its Amazon Leo broadband internet satellites, and now it\u2019s asking the Federal Communications Commission for more time.<\/p>\n<p>The request for an extension, filed today, asks the FCC to give Amazon until July 30, 2028, to deploy half of its 3,232 satellites in low Earth orbit. The current deadline is July 30, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon said it\u2019s spent more than $10 billion on its Leo constellation and has reserved more than 100 launches to get the satellites in their proper orbits. But it acknowledged that it\u2019ll miss the original deadline, which was set in 2020 when the FCC gave the initial go-ahead for what was then known as Project Kuiper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite a historic reserve of launch capacity and deep investments in launch infrastructure, Amazon Leo has faced a shortage in the near-term availability of launches,\u201d the company said. \u201cThis shortage has been driven by manufacturing disruptions, the failure and grounding of new launch vehicles, and limitations in spaceport capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Citing the launch availability gap, Amazon said it has had to reduce the production rate at its satellite manufacturing facility in Kirkland, Wash. \u201cAmazon Leo is capable of consistently manufacturing 30 satellites per week \u2014 or over 1,500 satellites per year,\u201d the company said. \u201cTo date, Amazon Leo has produced hundreds of flight-qualified satellites, and could readily have produced a multiple of this amount but for adjustments to its production schedule made in response to the delays in its launch manifest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rocket shortage wasn\u2019t the only factor behind the schedule delay. In the filing, Amazon said a prototype satellite test mission that was launched in 2023 \u201cvalidated Amazon Leo\u2019s general design but resulted in unexpected re-engineering to improve performance and reliability \u2014 a critical effort that delayed full-scale manufacturing by approximately nine months.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s Vulcan and the European-built Ariane 6 rocket are supposed to be coming up in the next few months. Amazon has signed up for two dozen launches on Blue Origin\u2019s heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. And in today\u2019s filing, Amazon acknowledged that it\u2019s reserved 10 Falcon 9 rockets in addition to the three already launched.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Atlas V launches Amazon Leo 4 (LA-04)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e_wOokgQMtQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>By the end of July, Amazon expects to have 700 satellites in orbit. \u201cBy this date, Amazon Leo also expects to have its customer terminals in the hands of more enterprise and government customers, and to be poised to roll out service more broadly in the U.S. and across the globe,\u201d Amazon said.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon insisted that it will make a final FCC deadline to have all of its planned 3,232 satellites deployed by mid-2029. In the filing, the company suggested that the agency could just go ahead and waive the halfway-point deadline as an alternative to granting an extension.<\/p>\n<p>Although the request for a deadline extension was widely expected, it\u2019s coming at a time when the market for satellite internet service is heating up. SpaceX\u2019s Starlink network currently dominates that market, with more than 9,000 satellites launched and more than 9 million subscribers served. And last week, Blue Origin announced that it was working on an ultra-high-speed satellite data network called TeraWave.<\/p>\n<p>In a series of posts to the X social-media platform, industry consultant Tim Farrar said the timing of the request \u201cseems like more than a coincidence after the Blue Origin TeraWave announcement led to speculation about a spinoff of Amazon Leo to BO [Blue Origin].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem particularly wise for Amazon to plan on launching 3,200 of the current design, rather than moving to a more advanced model that will be more competitive with Starlink V3. However, it will at least quiet any questions about Amazon Leo\u2019s future for now,\u201d Farrar wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s really important when Amazon Leo are trying hard to win customer commitments in the coming months, especially after recent layoffs at the company.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Atlas 5 rocket rises from its Florida launch pad in December to send 27 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit. (United Launch Alliance Photo) Amazon says it\u2019s been harder than expected to secure rides for its Amazon Leo broadband internet satellites, and now it\u2019s asking the Federal Communications Commission for more time. The request for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[275,688,277,1720,962,4336],"class_list":["post-17057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-amazon","tag-amazon-leo","tag-fcc","tag-federal-communications-commission","tag-project-kuiper","tag-satellite-broadband"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}