Starlink satellite deployment. Photo: SpaceX

After Amazon asked the FCC to deny SpaceX’s request to build an orbital data center constellation, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr criticized Amazon’s own constellation deployment in a public post on X. 

The FCC is currently taking public comments on SpaceX’s ask to deploy up to 1 million satellites in an optically linked constellation to serve as an orbital data center, and has received nearly 1,500 comments so far. Amazon filed a petition to deny SpaceX’s application on March 6. 

“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 said in a Wednesday statement. 

Carr referenced that Amazon is behind on meeting its milestone to have half of its 3,232 constellation deployed by July 30. There are currently 212 Amazon Leo satellites in orbit. Amazon recently requested a milestone waiver from the FCC, while confirming it plans to have the full constellation deployed by the end of July 2029. 

Amazon’s petition to deny the SpaceX constellation criticized SpaceX’s application for lacking a specific deployment plan or a detailed satellite architecture plan, calling it a “lofty ambition rather than a real plan.” 

“At best, the application appears to be an exercise in publicity and messaging—and at worst, an attempt to stake a priority claim over a vast swath of orbital resources with no genuine intent to deploy,” Amazon’s filing said.

“Forcing every other operator in Low-Earth Orbit to plan around a constellation that may never exist, distorting international spectrum and orbital coordination proceedings, and lending regulatory legitimacy to what amounts to a publicity and narrative-shaping exercise,” Amazon added. 

The orbital data center constellation was announced as SpaceX quickly merged with Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI, while the company is reportedly preparing for an IPO. Leading industry analysts have also questioned the constellation for both the technical and economic challenges involved and its role as part of the narrative of a potential SpaceX IPO. 

Other groups have recently submitted comments including the Secure World Foundation and the American Astronomical Society. 

Secure World Foundation noted that the scope of this constellation would set a new type of precedent, and merits a separate level of regulatory analysis. SWF called for a system-level analysis and disclosure on cumulative collision risks, post-mission disposal (PMD) performance, and aggregate interference effects.

Separately, the American Astronomical Society also submitted a petition to deny, calling the planned constellation “an unprecedented threat to the visual integrity of the night sky.”