United Launch Alliance is scheduled to launch its Vulcan rocket on Friday carrying 40 satellites for Amazon’s Leo broadband constellation, a mission that marks the company’s next step in a race against federal deployment deadlines.
The flight, designated LV-01, is set to lift off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
What is launching and when
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan VC6L is scheduled to carry Amazon Leo’s LV-01 mission, targeting liftoff on November 13, 2026, from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station , subject to schedule changes. The launch is currently scheduled for November 13, 2026 at 5:54 PM UTC , with the window running from 17:54 to 18:24 UTC.
LV-01 is Amazon Leo’s first launch aboard ULA’s Vulcan rocket, and it will carry 40 satellites to low Earth orbit, the largest Leo payload delivered to date.
The mission is notable partly because of the rocket involved. As Astronomy.com reported, the week’s launch schedule includes ULA’s Vulcan returning to flight with 40 Amazon Leo satellites, alongside SpaceX’s attempt to catch both stages of Starship for the first time.
Amazon’s constellation so far
Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, is a mega constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit that will offer broadband internet access managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon.
Amazon Leo is an initiative to increase global broadband access through a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).
Amazon Leo had launched 396 satellites across 14 production missions as of 11 November 2026 , according to tracking data, and consumer service has not yet opened.
Amazon says initial service will begin before the end of 2026 in the US, UK, France, Germany and Canada, according to Amazon’s own announcement of the LV-01 mission. That puts the Vulcan flight among the final steps before Amazon’s broadband service is expected to go live to the public.
The buildout places Amazon’s network well behind SpaceX’s Starlink in total scale, making it the third-largest satellite constellation in orbit. Tracking estimates in recent weeks have put active Starlink satellites at roughly 9,900 to 11,200 and OneWeb at around 650.
Regulatory pressure shapes the launch pace
Amazon’s deployment schedule is tied directly to conditions set by the Federal Communications Commission.
Amazon Leo, formerly Project Kuiper, missed its Federal Communications Commission (FCC) interim requirement to have 1,616 satellites deployed by 30 July 2026.
A conditional waiver granted on 5 June 2026 kept its licence in force, but all 3,232 first-generation satellites remain due by 30 July 2029.
The scale of what remains is considerable. 80+ launches contracted across five rocket families make up what is described as the largest commercial launch procurement in history.
Amazon Leo began a full-scale deployment of its satellite constellation in April 2025 with the first of 80+ launches from Arianespace, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance (ULA).
Why the mission matters
The Vulcan launch is a test of whether Amazon can accelerate deployment fast enough to catch up with Starlink’s head start in low Earth orbit broadband.
That market increasingly overlaps with the terrestrial wireless business, where carriers have been experimenting with their own satellite-to-phone partnerships and hybrid coverage tools, a trend GCN covered in its look at how a broadband fleet topped 11,000 satellites earlier this year.
Beyond broadband, satellite infrastructure is increasingly becoming a testbed for other computing workloads, an area GCN examined in its coverage of Google’s orbital AI chip tests.
For Amazon, however, Friday’s launch is squarely about closing the gap on its FCC-mandated timeline. Amazon says initial availability will begin before the end of 2026 in the US, UK, France, Germany and Canada , with a free waitlist open at leo.amazon.com.
If the Vulcan flight proceeds as scheduled, it will add another 40 satellites to a constellation that still needs thousands more before Amazon’s network reaches its licensed capacity.
That underscores how much launch cadence, not just manufacturing, now determines the pace of the broadband rollout.
