{"id":863517,"date":"2026-09-28T12:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/863517\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:32:13","slug":"spacex-preps-next-gen-starlink-as-amazons-competitor-stalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/863517\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX preps next-gen Starlink as Amazon\u2019s competitor stalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX is gearing up for a monumental flight today that\u2019s sure to be closely watched by Amazon. If successful, SpaceX will deploy its first Starlink V3 satellites<\/a>, which tout meaningful upgrades to the ever-expanding Starlink constellation. The 26 satellites will be riding atop Starship, which SpaceX will also attempt to deploy into Earth orbit for the first time. The mission arrives amid Amazon\u2019s ongoing setbacks with launch partners that are keeping its own Leo satellites grounded, and falling further behind its plan to offer a meaningful rival to Elon Musk\u2019s space internet service.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been twelve weeks since Amazon\u2019s last successful Leo deployment<\/a> with 29 satellites carried into orbit aboard United Launch Alliance\u2019s (ULA) Atlas V rocket on July 2nd. That brings Leo\u2019s launched satellite total to 396 \u2014 far below the over 11,000 satellites that Starlink currently has in operation, or even the 552 Starlink satellites<\/a> that have launched since July 2nd. Following its last launch, Amazon Leo launch systems director Melissa Wuerl said<\/a> that the company had \u201ca clear path to increase launch and deployment cadence,\u201d but that evidently hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n

Issues blighting Leo\u2019s launch partners are largely to blame for the setbacks. Vulcan, ULA\u2019s successor to the soon retiring Atlas V rocket that Amazon has relied on, has been grounded by the US Space Force since February 2026<\/a> following a booster anomaly that\u2019s still under investigation. Blue Origin, the space company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is similarly contracted to launch Leo satellites, but its New Glenn rocket has also been grounded since its only launchpad was destroyed<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n

All of this begs the question: when will Amazon next expand its Leo constellation? The service is only in its early stages and has already received an extension for its FCC deadline<\/a> to launch half of its planned 3,232 satellites, which came with the condition that the company needs to move quickly. Amazon previously said that the almost 400 satellites it has in operation are enough to switch on a limited version of its internet service, but the \u201cmid-2026\u201d deadline it set for commercial availability has passed with no update. At this rate, it\u2019ll be years <\/a>before Leo can seriously compete with Starlink globally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX is gearing up for a monumental flight today that\u2019s sure to be closely watched by Amazon. If…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[960,3,79,193,1513,172],"class_list":["post-863517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-amazon","tag-news","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}