Overview
- The FCC issued the waiver on June 5, allowing Amazon Leo to miss the July 30 interim milestone while preserving the requirement to finish all 3,232 Gen 1 satellites by July 2029.
- Satellites Amazon launches after July 30 will lose the priority spectrum and coordination rights it gained in the 2020/2021 processing rounds until March 30, 2028 unless Amazon reaches 50 percent deployment sooner.
- The priority lapse can be shortened by five months if Amazon proves it has built and secured launches for half its Gen 1 fleet, restoring its earlier coordination status by October 2027 in that case.
- Amazon says a shortage of available heavy-lift launches has slowed deployment and that it has more than 100 launch contracts plus a planned Ariane 6 mission in mid‑June to send 36 satellites to orbit.
- The decision responds to the FCC’s goal of creating a second major LEO broadband competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink, but SpaceX opposed the waiver and Blue Origin’s recent New Glenn test failure adds near‑term launch risk.