FCC chair blasts Amazon after it criticizes SpaceX megaconstellation

It is fairly common for satellite companies to verbally spar over constellations, battling over territory such as preferred orbits and the electromagnetic spectrum for data transmission. The venue for such disputes is often the Federal Communications Commission, which has regulatory authority over satellite communications.

Everyone pretty much fights with everyone, but of late, the exchanges between SpaceX and Amazon have turned a bit nasty. And on Wednesday, the FCC chairman weighed in against Amazon.

The issue of the moment is SpaceX’s recent application to the FCC for permission to launch up to 1 million satellites to form a megaconstellation to provide data center services from space.

“Centuries” to deploy

Last Friday, Amazon petitioned the FCC to deny SpaceX’s request. The company founded by Jeff Bezos said SpaceX, in its application, “seems to describe a lofty ambition rather than a real plan.” Amazon told the FCC that SpaceX’s plan was not bounded by reality.

“Timing is likewise uncertain: deploying the proposed million-satellite constellation would take centuries, even assuming the availability of all global launch capacity to do so,” the petition stated.

Amazon and SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, have sparred for years before the FCC when it comes to megaconstellations.

SpaceX has launched more than 9,000 satellites for its Starlink constellation, and Amazon began launching satellites for its Amazon LEO constellation last year, with about 200 in orbit now. Both of these broadband constellations aim to serve a mix of business and commercial customers. In January, Bezos’ Blue Origin announced plans for another internet constellation, TeraWave, to serve enterprise customers.

In addition to parrying with SpaceX over its proposed, vastly larger orbital data center constellation, Amazon is seeking some regulatory relief of its own. Most pressing for Amazon is a deadline to deploy half of its Amazon Leo constellation, intended to ultimately comprise 3,236 satellites, by July 30. The company will not meet this deadline, with only a little more than three months to go, and Amazon has requested an extension, asking for it to be moved to July 30, 2028.

Carr pulls up

On Wednesday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr injected himself into the SpaceX-Amazon fracas over megaconstellations.

“Amazon should focus on the fact that it will fall roughly 1,000 satellites short of meeting its upcoming deployment milestone, rather than spending their time and resources filing petitions against companies that are putting thousands of satellites in orbit,” Carr said on X, the social media network owned by Musk.

There are arguments to be made in favor of both SpaceX and Amazon regarding their competing concerns. For example, SpaceX is likely to be able to greatly accelerate the rate at which it launches satellites with the forthcoming Starship rocket. So saying it will take centuries to put its data centers into space is not likely true.

However, it is valid to criticize SpaceX’s application for 1 million satellites, which is an extraordinary number of spacecraft that would completely change many things about low-Earth orbit. The SpaceX application did not contain critical information about the size, mass, and other details needed to evaluate the constellation for safety and other concerns.

It cannot be comfortable for Amazon and Bezos to see Carr weighing in so publicly and favorably on Musk’s side. Legally, Carr is allowed to have strongly held policy views. But he is not supposed to single out companies for preferential treatment.