Amazon said in an interview published October 8, 2026, that it had recently manufactured its 1,000th Amazon Leo broadband satellite. Amazon Leo vice president of business Chris Weber separately reported 396 satellites in orbit and said the company planned initial service in 2026. The first figure is a manufacturing milestone; the second counts satellites already in orbit.
The 1,000th satellite is a production milestone
Amazon’s reported 1,000th satellite counts units manufactured, not satellites deployed in orbit. Weber put the in-orbit total at 396 in the October 8 interview. Amazon’s stated target for its first-generation constellation is 3,232 satellites.
Those figures describe different stages of the project: factory production, orbital deployment and the planned size of the first-generation network. Amazon said some satellites still needed to be raised into their final orbital positions, with ground work also remaining.
A Vulcan launch forecast is separate from the service plan
On October 8, Amazon executive Rajeev Badyal said a Vulcan launch carrying Leo satellites was expected within weeks. He also described an Arianespace mission and at least one more Vulcan flight as planned for later in 2026. These were launch forecasts made at the time.
The service schedule was a separate plan: Amazon said initial service was planned for 2026. The weeks-away estimate referred to the Vulcan flight, not to commercial service.
Amazon says production reached 27 satellites a week
Amazon said its Kirkland, Washington, factory progressed from making its first 27 satellites over six months to producing 27 a week. The factory occupies a building of about 15,800 square meters that Amazon took over in December 2022 and converted over the following 15 months.
Amazon’s director of production, Paul Palcisco, described the satellite manufacturing, testing and packing cycle as taking several weeks. The company said it could incorporate design changes within one to two weeks. It also said tests that previously took days or weeks could be completed in hours.
Amazon’s claimed speeds and business networking
Amazon said Leo could offer business and government customers download speeds of up to 1 Gbps and upload speeds of up to 400 Mbps. Those figures describe the company’s claims for those customer groups.
Amazon also described AES-256 encryption for the network and an optional private-networking route for business customers. The route is intended to connect an antenna through a satellite and ground gateway to a customer data center or Amazon Web Services without crossing the public internet.
