Amazon Expands Launch Partnership with Arianespace
Amazon's Leo satellite constellation has expanded its partnership with Arianespace, adding six new launches to its existing contract. This brings Amazon's total commitment from 18 to 24 launches, making it the largest single customer for Arianespace.
The agreement was announced in a statement from Arianespace, which said that the new launches demonstrate Amazon Leo's confidence in the performance and reliability of Ariane 6. The company has already delivered 100 satellites to orbit across three missions, with the most recent one deploying 36 satellites using upgraded solid boosters developed by ArianeGroup.
Arianespace CEO David Cavaillolès said that long-term commitments from customers like Amazon Leo support the ramp-up of Ariane 6 and strengthen their business model. He noted that these commitments increase Arianespace's capacity to serve all its customers while ensuring Europe has the capabilities it needs to deploy critical space infrastructure.
The expanded partnership is expected to contribute €2.8 billion to GDP and support an average of 3,270 jobs annually through 2029, according to Oxford Economics estimates.