Amazon Leo Formerly Project Kuiper · Operated by Kuiper Systems LLC

Overview

Amazon Leo is a low Earth orbit broadband internet constellation operated by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. Licensed by the FCC for 3,236 satellites across three altitude shells (590 km, 610 km, and 630 km), it represents Amazon's multi-billion-dollar entry into the satellite internet market. The programme was originally known as Project Kuiper — named after the Kuiper Belt — before being rebranded to Amazon Leo in November 2025 as deployment accelerated.

The constellation is designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband to underserved communities, enterprise customers, and aviation/maritime users worldwide. Each satellite features the custom Prometheus baseband chip and optical inter-satellite links (OISL) operating at 100 Gbps. Track the constellation live on our Amazon Leo Tracker.

Deployment Status (2026)

Amazon launched two prototype satellites (KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2) on a ULA Atlas V in October 2023 for end-to-end testing. Production deployment began in April 2025 with the first 27 satellites on Atlas V. As of early 2026, approximately 210+ production satellites are in orbit across eight successful missions using Atlas V, Falcon 9, and Ariane 6 launch vehicles.

The FCC requires Amazon to deploy and operate 1,618 satellites (50% of the constellation) by July 30, 2026, and the full 3,236 by July 30, 2029. Amazon has requested a deadline extension due to launch vehicle availability challenges. In January 2026, the FCC approved a Gen2 expansion of 4,500 additional satellites, bringing the total planned to 7,727. Monitor the FCC deadline countdown live.

Three-Shell Architecture

Unlike Starlink's single primary altitude or OneWeb's single 1,200 km shell, Amazon Leo distributes satellites across three concentric orbital shells, each with different inclinations optimised for specific latitude bands:

This multi-shell approach provides layered, overlapping coverage and built-in redundancy. The lower inclinations (30°–51.9°) focus coverage on populated latitudes between approximately 56°S and 56°N, covering the vast majority of the world's population. See the triple-shell visualizer on our tracker.

Technology

Prometheus Chip

At the heart of every Amazon Leo satellite, customer terminal, and ground gateway is the Prometheus baseband chip — Amazon's custom silicon designed to process up to 1 Tbps of data per satellite. By combining the capabilities of multiple traditional chips into one, Prometheus reduces satellite mass, power consumption, and manufacturing cost. It was developed in-house by Amazon's semiconductor team.

Optical Inter-Satellite Links

Every Amazon Leo satellite includes OISL capability — infrared laser connections between satellites at up to 100 Gbps. This creates a mesh network in space where data can route between satellites without touching the ground at every hop. This is architecturally distinct from OneWeb's bent-pipe system (which requires ground station line-of-sight) and similar to Starlink's v2 laser links. Explore the OISL mesh visualization on our tracker.

Brightness Mitigation

Amazon Leo satellites incorporate a dielectric mirror coating to reduce solar reflectivity and minimise visual impact for ground-based astronomers — an issue that has affected Starlink satellites, particularly in the early generations.

Customer Terminals

Amazon has announced three customer terminal types, all powered by the Prometheus chip with electronically steered phased-array antennas operating in Ka-band (17–30 GHz):

Launch Vehicles

Amazon Leo is unique among mega-constellations in using five different rocket types from four providers — the largest commercial launch procurement in history:

Track mission progress on the launch vehicle scorecard and launch timeline.

Competitive Position

Amazon Leo enters a market where SpaceX's Starlink has a massive head start — approximately 9,850 active satellites and 4+ million subscribers in 100+ countries. However, Amazon brings significant strategic advantages: over $10 billion in committed funding, integration with AWS cloud infrastructure, an existing Prime customer base of 200+ million, and partnerships like JetBlue for in-flight WiFi (launching 2027).

Amazon is expected to compete aggressively on price, potentially bundling Leo service with Prime memberships. The company has also secured preliminary grants from the US BEAD broadband expansion programme. For a detailed breakdown, see our Starlink vs Amazon Leo comparison.

Key People

The programme is led by Rajeev Badyal, Vice President of Amazon Leo, who was previously VP of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet constellation before being fired by Elon Musk in 2018. Several other former SpaceX engineers joined Amazon to build the programme.

Timeline