Follow-up to: Ariane 6: fourth Amazon Leo mission takes shape in Kourou, no date set yet (4 Oct 2026)
Our previous note on LE-04 left two open questions: when, and how many satellites. On 14 October Arianespace answered both. According to the company, flight VA271, which Amazon calls LE-04, will lift off no earlier than 23 November carrying 36 Amazon Leo satellites. There is no time yet; the window will be announced closer to launch. The original guide was 7 October, so the delay is around six weeks.
Why November
Arianespace's announcement doesn't explain the slip. The French press does. Aerospatiumreports that an anomaly was found in a turbopump on one of the cryogenic engines during an acceptance test on a stand, and that it has since been fixed. Génération NT, citing La Tribune, adds more detail. The defect was spotted during routine checks in August, and engineers had to choose between repairing it in place and replacing the turbopump entirely. It hasn't been disclosed which engine was affected: the Vulcain 2.1 on the core stage or the Vinci on the upper stage.
The rocket has around 300,000 parts, yet one turbopump was enough to shrink the annual plan. Arianespace was chasing up to eight Ariane 6 flights in 2026, and four have flown so far. VA271 will be the fifth. December's schedule still holds EUMETSAT's MetOp-SG B1 weather satellite. According to La Tribune, the year will end with six flights at most, and five if the December one slips into January.
In our Vulcan note we wrote that Ariane 6 flies for Amazon more regularly than the two American rockets combined. Just a week later the order has flipped. Vulcan, which hasn't flown since February, is targeting 29 October for its first Amazon mission and could beat the European rocket by almost a month.
36 satellites already waiting on the dispenser
Telesatellite reports that the 36 satellites are already in Kourou and mounted on the dispenser. They will sit there for at least another five weeks. (The Kirkland warehouse is not the only place where Amazon's satellites are waiting their turn.)
It will be the fourth flight of Ariane 64 and the second with the more powerful P160C boosters. If it succeeds, Arianespace will have launched 136 satellites for Amazon in total. Clubic calculates that this is around a third of the constellation in orbit. According to Amazon, nearly 400 satellites are already in orbit after 14 missions.
| Mission | Flight | Date | Satellites | Total on Ariane 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LE-01 | VA267 | 12 Feb 2026 | 32 | 32 |
| LE-02 | VA268 | 30 Apr 2026 | 32 | 64 |
| LE-03 | VA269 | 17 Jun 2026 | 36 | 100 |
| LE-04 | VA271 | NET 23 Nov 2026 | 36 | 136 |
18 became 24
On 9 September, at the space gathering in Paris, Amazon ordered six more Ariane 64 flights. According to Amazon, that takes its contract with Arianespace to 24 launches instead of the original 18 from 2022. Reutersreported that the new flights begin in 2029 and that the whole package runs to 2031. Chris Weber, vice-president of Amazon Leo, explained the choice in one sentence: "We committed early because we believed in what Arianespace was building." The value was not disclosed.
Who pays
| Who pays | To whom | For what | How much | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Arianespace | VA271/LE-04, one of 18 launches under the April 2022 contract | Not disclosed | Amazon |
| Amazon | Arianespace | 6 more Ariane 64 flights from 2029, 24 in total by 2031 | Not disclosed | Amazon, Reuters |
| France, Germany and Italy (via ESA) | ArianeGroup | Support for Ariane 6 operations, flights 16–42 | Up to €340m a year | European Spaceflight |
The last row doesn't pay for VA271, which is only the tenth flight. It shows what keeping the rocket flying beyond its 15th flight will cost three European budgets. Commercial orders like Amazon's are the other half of the bill.
What I think
A six-week delay is no drama. A turbopump caught on a test stand is the best possible scenario: that is exactly where you want to find a defect, not five minutes into a flight with 36 satellites on top. Arianespace was right not to take the risk. What worries me is something else. According to Génération NT, ArianeGroup is sticking to its target of 9–10 flights a year from 2027. That target depends on the same production line that has just lost a month and a half to a single part. Nor would I read Amazon's six new orders purely as a vote of confidence. Vulcan is only just returning, New Glenn has no pad, and the only trouble-free alternative is SpaceX, Amazon Leo's direct competitor. The confidence is real, but it is also confidence born of a lack of better options.