ULA launches 29 Amazon Leo satellites from Cape Canaveral into orbit

Amazon pushed its low-Earth-orbit broadband race forward Monday night, sending 29 more Leo satellites into orbit on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V and lifting its deployed total to 270 as it builds toward commercial service planned for mid-2026. The mission matters well beyond a single launch: Amazon is trying to challenge Starlink in the satellite internet market, while also betting that a larger orbital network can extend fast, reliable internet to communities and customers beyond the reach of existing systems.

ULA launched the Atlas V 551 from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:53:30 p.m. EDT on April 27, 2026. The rocket carried 29 satellites for Amazon Leo, the company’s low-Earth-orbit network formerly known as Project Kuiper. Amazon said the satellites were released in 10 deployments over a 16-minute window, with all 29 deployed 37 minutes and 37 seconds after liftoff. The launch brought Amazon Leo’s total deployed count to 270.

The flight also marked a new benchmark for the Atlas V. ULA said the payload was the heaviest ever launched on the rocket, and that the earlier April 4 Leo 5 mission, which also carried 29 satellites, had been the largest Amazon Leo payload flown on Atlas V until now. The latest launch came 23 days and 19 hours after the previous Atlas V mission from Space Launch Complex-41, beating the pad’s prior turnaround record of 26 days, 5 hours and 19 minutes. For United Launch Alliance, the mission showed that Atlas V still has a role to play in moving major commercial constellations through orbit as the U.S. launch sector fills with competing providers and bigger satellite orders.

Amazon says Leo is designed to provide fast, reliable internet to areas that existing networks do not reach, and the company says its initial constellation will include more than 3,000 spacecraft. Amazon began deploying the system in April 2025 with its first 27 satellites, and one industry report put the company’s on-orbit total at roughly 240 before Monday’s launch. ULA vice president of Atlas and Vulcan programs Gary Wentz said the company was proud to work with Amazon Leo on the next batch of satellites, underscoring how closely launch capacity and broadband expansion are now tied together.

The launch was part of a rare Space Coast doubleheader, with SpaceX also targeting a Falcon Heavy mission the same day. That made the Atlas V liftoff visible along parts of Florida’s east coast, a public sign of how the satellite internet competition and the launch-market contest are now unfolding on the same stretch of shoreline.