SpaceX v. Amazon Heats Up at the FCC
March 22, 2026
More shots have been fired in the FCC feud between SpaceX and Amazon Leo.
In a world where regulatory filings can feel dull and dry, this case brings the drama—and the snark. Let’s walk through how these two satcom mega constellations are publicly dueling in a governmental arena.
How it started: In early March, Amazon Leo sent a petition to the FCC, urging the office to deny SpaceX’s application to build a million-sat constellation in LEO. Amazon’s argument is that SpaceX’s orbital data center proposal provides “only the barest outline.”
Because SpaceX doesn’t include specifics about its planned constellation—from a still-in-development satellite development program, to a 1,500-km wide potential operating area, to the timeline for launch—Amazon asked the FCC to reject the proposal.
“In short, the application seems to describe a lofty ambition rather than a real plan—and a
speculative placeholder, rather than a complete application under the commission’s rules,” Amazon wrote in the petition.
How it’s going: SpaceX, however, has pulled an Uno reverse. Last week, Blue Origin submitted its own FCC filing to get the ok to launch its own orbital-data-center network, which is a 51,000+ constellation dubbed Project Sunrise.
SpaceX submitted a response to Blue Origin’s proposal. SpaceX argues that—since the two programs are “similarly situated”—the FCC should consider Blue Origin’s objections to SpaceX’s proposal when considering Blue’s own application.
“SpaceX submits for the record Amazon’s petition to deny SpaceX’s orbital data center application and requests that the commission apply the substantive and procedural arguments in Amazon’s petition to Blue Origin’s application to facilitate equitable and consistent review and treatment across both applications,” SpaceX’s claim says—that’s legalese for FAFO.
What’s next: The FCC will have to decide what it will allow in the orbital-data-center field—but SpaceX seems to have support from high places. Shortly after Amazon filed its petition against SpaceX’s plan, FCC Chair Brendan Carr essentially told Amazon to mind its own business.
“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 wrote on X.
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Business and liberal arts majors rejoice! Kayhan Space, a startup behind the Satcat orbital data aggregation tool, just launched a new digital product focused on making it easier for the not-engineering-trained to understand what’s happening on orbit.
Satcat Terminal—a reference to the Bloomberg Terminal for financial data—presents all of the data that Kayhan gathers on 36,000+ orbital objects in a way that’s intended for market movers.
“Satcat started with the mind of connecting different data sources together, and that was very satellite centric,” Kayhan Chief Product Officer Hyun Seo told Payload. “As we aggregated more data together we found out, if we add a little bit more curation and perspective…[we can] extend that to the actual personas of insurance, finance, or anyone that’s not a space operator.”
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