FCC chair brings Amazon Leo down to earth

US telecoms regulator chair Brendan Carr pushed back on Amazon’s criticism of a major SpaceX satellite proposal, telling the company to sort out its own constellation first.

Amazon, whose Project Kuiper low Earth orbit (LEO) system competes with SpaceX’s Starlink, filed a petition with the FCC on 6 March arguing SpaceX’s bid to deploy up to 1 million satellites for solar‑powered data centres in space was short on detail and unrealistic. Carr responded on X (formerly Twitter) that Amazon "should focus on the fact that it will fall roughly 1,000 satellites short" of its own FCC deployment milestone instead of challenging rivals that already have thousands of satellites in orbit. Amazon currently has just over 200 satellites in space and is required to launch half of its planned 3,236‑satellite Kuiper network by July. It asked the FCC in January for a 24‑month extension to meet that deadline.