Leo Roars into Race for Broadband Space

American-owned and operated proliferated LEO is shaping up to be as important as control of the seas. 

Back in April, Amazon launched the first 27 satellites for a low-earth orbit constellation known as Project Kuiper.  Last week, the American technology behemoth made the move to rename the service Amazon Leo – a clever play on the space slang for low-earth orbit or LEO. 

It’s the type of canny marketing move at which Amazon excels, but the events surrounding the massive proliferation of satellites in LEO have major implications for the U.S. space race with China.

Amazon Leo aims to compete with Starlink for the business of space-delivered broadband.  Starlink dominates at present, with over 6,750 satellites on orbit in a band about 340 miles up.  Via SpaceX, Starlink has the ability to launch its own satellites.  Ultimately, Amazon aims for over 3,000 satellites on orbit. The massive resources required to build and launch thousands of satellites into low-Earth orbit are a big bet for the company. 

The rebranding of Amazon Leo is not just about marketing and competition.  It’s a vivid reminder that the stakes are high – not just for commercial broadband delivery, but also for national security.  The need for American-owned and operated proliferated LEO is shaping up to be as important as control of the seas. 

LEO is the band 100 to 1000 miles above the Earth’s surface.  It’s no picnic up there.  “The space domain plays an increasingly vital role in making the modern American way of life possible, and China’s pursuit of its ambitions in the domain could present a powerful destabilizing force to our economy and our national security,” General Chance B. Saltzman, Chief of Staff, United States Space Force, testified earlier this year. 

For military operations, the U.S. announced the launch of the first tranche of its proliferated LEO warfighting architecture in September.  The Space Force will use the satellites for missile tracking, communications, and other advanced tasks.   

China is actively training to target systems in low-Earth orbit, according to Saltzman.  They have missiles, ground-based laser weapons, and methods to bully satellites on orbit. 

Of course, China is also targeting the low-earth commercial market.  China launched its first satellites on February 11, 2025, as part of a plan for a constellation of 15,000 satellites.  While China lags, there is no doubt that “China’s rapid advancement in low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet technology represents a direct challenge to global U.S. operations, communications infrastructure, and the free flow of information,” noted Shannon Vaughn in the aptly-named report “LEO Wars: China’s Orbital Challenge to the U.S.-led Digital Order.”

The business model aimed for a fast, reliable internet for customers, including those beyond the reach of traditional networks.  Asia is a particular focus.  Starlink already operates in Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and India, but Amazon has ramped up its efforts in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Amazon is focused on a steady increase in the tempo of its launches.  150 satellites are on orbit and Amazon has signed the largest launch contracts in history to build out the constellation.  Amazon has opened a 100,000-square-foot payload processing center at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  “At full capacity, this building will house three dispenser systems stacked full of Kuiper [now Leo] satellites, and a combination of fairings from rockets like Atlas V, Vulcan, New Glenn, and Falcon 9. There’s nothing else like it on the Space Coast,” according to Steve Metayer, vice president of production operations for Amazon Leo.

The race to provide broadband internet from space is one the U.S. must win.  The business case is a national interest in itself.  There is also a need to ensure against crisis coercion.  For example, Russia’s 2022 attack on ground-based segments of Ukraine’s Viasat satellite broadband services “caused widespread disruptions to Ukrainian satellite-based communications in the early hours of the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022” and “affected the KA-SAT networks in large parts of Western Europe,” according to a European report.    In 2023, the U.S. and UK intelligence formally attributed the attack to Russia.  Starlink rushed in to provide back-up broadband services, while Microsoft and others provided “unprecedented” technology assistance to keep Ukraine’s government services functioning. 

Future attacks might go after LEO. “Beijing’s ambitions in space represent an incredible threat to the rules-based national order,” Saltzman summed up. Resilience and capacity to reroute and recover are key. The U.S. needs the full efforts of its commercial space firms alongside the military space industrial base to assure space superiority.