SpaceX: Amazon’s last Leo launch violated its license, forcing 30 Starlink satellites to maneuver to avoid collision
SpaceX yesterday filed a letter of complaint against Amazon with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), stating that on Amazon’s last launch on February 12, 2026 it violated its license, placing its 32 satellites in a higher orbit than the 400-kilometer orbit the FCC approved, forcing 30 Starlink satellites to maneuver to avoid collision.
Worse, Amazon did not inform anyone of this change. From SpaceX’s letter:
Despite its repeated representations and related license conditions, Amazon launched eight times into orbits with insertion altitudes above 450 km without submitting any amended orbital debris mitigation plan or seeking Commission approval for such a change. Most recently, even with input from SpaceX, Amazon’s February 12, 2026, launch on Ariane 6 inserted its satellites at an altitude sufficiently high that it led to unmitigable collision risks with dozens of operational spacecraft.
To be clear, Amazon did not update its orbital debris mitigation plan. But more importantly, Amazon did not provide sufficiently accurate ephemerides to facilitate postdeployment deconfliction for that launch, which significantly increased the risks to all satellite operations near the 480 km insertion altitude as well as to inhabited spacecraft. Amazon’s lack of deconfliction forced Starlink satellites alone to perform 30 collision avoidance maneuvers within hours immediately following the Ariane launch to avoid the newly deployed satellites. Even in the presence of these maneuvers, the risk from this insertion is estimated to considerably exceed the Commission’s semi-annual reporting threshold of 1 × 10⁻⁵ for unmitigated conjunctions.
Amazon is already at risk of violating its FCC license in other ways. The license requires it to get half its 3,232 satellite constellation in orbit by July. It will not meet that requirement, and has already submitted a request for a waiver.
The violation that SpaceX cites in its letter is in many ways much more egregious. The whole point of the FCC’s licensing process is to coordinate the use of spectrum and orbital operations. The commission will not take kindly such a blatant disdain by Amazon of the FCC’s legal responsibilities. The FCC’s chairman, Brendan Carr, has already blasted Amazon in public for its slow satellite deployment, even as it repeatedly files what appear to be frivolous papers trying to block SpaceX.
Hat tip to reader Richard M.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
SpaceX yesterday filed a letter of complaint against Amazon with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), stating that on Amazon’s last launch on February 12, 2026 it violated its license, placing its 32 satellites in a higher orbit than the 400-kilometer orbit the FCC approved, forcing 30 Starlink satellites to maneuver to avoid collision.
Worse, Amazon did not inform anyone of this change. From SpaceX’s letter:
Despite its repeated representations and related license conditions, Amazon launched eight times into orbits with insertion altitudes above 450 km without submitting any amended orbital debris mitigation plan or seeking Commission approval for such a change. Most recently, even with input from SpaceX, Amazon’s February 12, 2026, launch on Ariane 6 inserted its satellites at an altitude sufficiently high that it led to unmitigable collision risks with dozens of operational spacecraft.
To be clear, Amazon did not update its orbital debris mitigation plan. But more importantly, Amazon did not provide sufficiently accurate ephemerides to facilitate postdeployment deconfliction for that launch, which significantly increased the risks to all satellite operations near the 480 km insertion altitude as well as to inhabited spacecraft. Amazon’s lack of deconfliction forced Starlink satellites alone to perform 30 collision avoidance maneuvers within hours immediately following the Ariane launch to avoid the newly deployed satellites. Even in the presence of these maneuvers, the risk from this insertion is estimated to considerably exceed the Commission’s semi-annual reporting threshold of 1 × 10⁻⁵ for unmitigated conjunctions.
Amazon is already at risk of violating its FCC license in other ways. The license requires it to get half its 3,232 satellite constellation in orbit by July. It will not meet that requirement, and has already submitted a request for a waiver.
The violation that SpaceX cites in its letter is in many ways much more egregious. The whole point of the FCC’s licensing process is to coordinate the use of spectrum and orbital operations. The commission will not take kindly such a blatant disdain by Amazon of the FCC’s legal responsibilities. The FCC’s chairman, Brendan Carr, has already blasted Amazon in public for its slow satellite deployment, even as it repeatedly files what appear to be frivolous papers trying to block SpaceX.
Hat tip to reader Richard M.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Good point, Bob. If all this unfolded as SpaceX represents in its letter, Amazon was really playing with fire given that its application for a deadline extension with the FCC is still pending, presided over by a chairman already publicly unhappy with them. Were they just stupidly reckless, or brazen?
How will the FCC respond? I don’t know. But I’m glad I’m not their lawyer appearing before the commission the next time it meets.
I would fine them the replacement cost of the Sata that needed to move out of the way. Wasting their fuel cuts their life time down.
If they are expected to last 10 years and you just cut their fuel down to 8 years you owe 2 years of production out of those sats.
It could be a billion dollars of profit lost by SpaceX.
This was not accidental. They need punished.