- Amazon Leo VP Chris Weber said commercial service is just “months away”
- Amazon Leo’s ground‑station infrastructure is already operational across its initial coverage zones
- Weber emphasized enterprise‑focused capabilities, including 400 Mbps uplink speeds and secure private networking
SAT SHOW 2026, WASHINGTON DC—Amazon Leo is pursuing a “very aggressive” launch schedule ahead of plans to commercially launch service later this year and already has most of its initial ground stations in place, Amazon's Leo's VP of Business Chris Weber said in a keynote Monday.
The company has more than 200 low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites in orbit thus far, with Weber noting Amazon made 11 rocket launches since April 2025. “The good news is we expect to double that in the next 12 months,” he said.
All told, more than 100 launches are “under contract” via four different launch providers: SpaceX, United Launch Alliance (ULA), Arianespace and Blue Origin, Weber added.
He didn’t specify when exactly Amazon Leo will kick off commercial service, aside from hinting that it’s “months away.” Initial coverage will target latitude bands in the northern and southern hemispheres, where “all of our ground infrastructure is installed and operational,” Weber said. Once Amazon Leo has more satellites in orbit, then the company will start expanding coverage towards the equator.
While Amazon feels bullish about its LEO proposition, Weber stressed the satellite business is “not for the faint of heart.” There’s a considerable amount of innovation and skillsets required to get satellite projects off the ground – both literally and figuratively.
“It’s not just about how do we get satellites in orbit, it’s the ground infrastructure, it’s testing the network,” he said. “Our intent is that it’s scalable, it’s built with autonomous system features and [it’s about] making sure that end-to-end business is there.”
For Amazon Leo’s part, the company has said it’s invested $10 billion to stand up its internet service, which aims to deliver 1 Gbps download speeds and up to 400 Mbps in uplink. The upload threshold is critical when it comes to processing “high-res imagery, video, telemetry, massive data sets,” said Weber.
While Amazon Leo still has a long way to go before it can provide enterprises 24/7 coverage, Weber boasted the company will eventually offer private networking for customers.
“What that essentially allows you to do is go from your antenna into your AWS cloud infrastructure or into your private data centers without ever touching the internet,” he said. “So that security part we think is a real differentiator.”
Weber also indicated there’s much more to come on the partnerships front, referring to Amazon Leo’s latest agreements with AT&T and JetBlue. “I would just say, stay tuned. We have some really big announcements on the way,” he concluded.