Credit: Amazon Amazon has built its 1,000th broadband satellite and says service is weeks away, having cut production from 27 satellites in six months to 27 a week, while the number in orbit is still 396. That shortfall cost it spectrum priority in July, and the FCC will hand it back early if Amazon proves it has the hardware built and the launches booked. Amazon has built its 1,000th broadband satellite. It took six months to make the first 27.
It now makes 27 a week. Rajeev Badyal, who runs the programme, led Starlink in its early years until Musk fired him eight years ago for moving too cautiously. He told Ars Technica that Amazon is weeks from launching on Vulcan, with an Arianespace flight to follow and at least one more Vulcan this year. Amazon took an empty 170,000 square foot building in Kirkland, Washington in December 2022 and turned it into a satellite plant in 15 months.
It builds its propulsion system in-house, and rewrote decades-old space testing using methods from consumer electronics, cutting checks that took weeks down to hours. It is now the second-largest satellite manufacturer in the world, behind SpaceX. The number in orbit has not moved. We reported 396 satellites in July, and 396 is what Amazon gives now.
The first generation needs 3,232. Vulcan has been grounded on a nozzle fault and a Blue Origin New Glenn exploded on its pad in May, despite about 100 launches booked across four providers. That gap has already cost Amazon something. It was required to have 1,616 satellites up by 30 July, and asked in January for a two-year extension, citing a shortage of launch vehicles.
The regulator waived the deadline but stripped spectrum priority in the Ka and Ku bands from everything launched after it, meaning those satellites must avoid interfering with Starlink. Priority can be restored early. The FCC said it would return from October 2027 if Amazon proves it has built the necessary hardware and secured the launch manifests. A thousand finished satellites and two Vulcans standing vertical is that argument, made in public.
A second generation is already filed and in design. Europe is already in the manifest. Ariane 6 is among the rockets Amazon has contracted, and Vodafone and Vodacom have been beta customers across Europe and Africa since April. Brussels is reserving airwaves of its own.
The Commission plans to ringfence two-thirds of the 2 GHz mobile-satellite band for European operators. IRIS2, signed in August, does not carry a customer until 2030. Also tagged with
Leave a Reply