Feds to Amazon: Quit Whining About SpaceX and Launch Some Damn Satellites

SpaceX stunned the satellite industry in late January when it asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to launch up to one million satellites to create an orbital data center constellation—a proposal that apparently ticked off Amazon. The ensuing spat has grown so heated that the FCC chairman recently stepped in. On March 6, Amazon petitioned the FCC to deny SpaceX’s application, arguing that it “seems to describe a lofty ambition rather than a real plan.” Jeff Bezos’s company said the proposal lacks key details about satellite design, orbital altitudes, radiofrequency characteristics, and SpaceX’s plans to manage conjunctions or interference at the scale of a million satellites. Amazon added that the timeline is unclear and that launching such a constellation could take centuries. The petition raises some valid concerns, but FCC Chairman Brendan Carr doesn’t seem persuaded. On Wednesday, he basically 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 tho