Amazon LEO is a simple nod to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation that powers the network.
Seven years ago, Amazon set out to design the most advanced satellite communications network ever built. The company’s vision was simple: There are still billions of people on the planet who lack high-speed internet access, and millions of businesses, governments, and other organizations operating in places without reliable connectivity. With a constellation of satellites in LEO, the company could help bridge that gap and extend fast, reliable internet to those beyond the reach of existing networks.
Amazon LEO started small, with a handful of engineers and a few designs on paper. Like most early Amazon projects, the program needed a code name, and the team began operating as “Project Kuiper”—inspired by the Kuiper Belt, a ring of asteroids in our outer solar system.
The code name stuck through many of the early milestones: filing and receiving initial licenses, signing the largest set of launch contracts in history, completing a successful prototype mission, and deploying our first full batch of production satellites earlier this year.
The company is now ready to share the permanent brand for the program: Amazon Leo.
The long-term mission remains the same and the company now operates one of the largest satellite production lines on the planet. Some of the most advanced customer terminals ever built, including the first commercial phased array antenna to support gigabit speeds, have been built by the company.
There are now more than 150 satellites in orbit, and customers and partners such as JetBlue, L3Harris, DIRECTV Latin America, Sky Brasil, and NBN Co., Australia’s National Broadband Network operator, have already signed up to deploy the service.
The initial satellite constellation continues to be built out and service will be initiated once more coverage and capacity to the network has been added.