Amazon’s push to blanket the planet with high speed internet from orbit is colliding with a very different vision of the night sky. As its new satellites flare brighter than many stars, astronomers warn that a technology meant to connect the unconnected is instead carving luminous scars across their data and, increasingly, across ordinary stargazers’ views.
The clash is not abstract. Early measurements show Amazon’s spacecraft shining well above recommended limits, bright enough to be seen without a telescope and to leave thick streaks through sensitive images. I see a familiar pattern emerging: a race to dominate low Earth orbit that is outpacing the rules, tools, and compromises needed to keep science and the sky itself intact.
Amazon’s bright new constellation meets a darker sky
Amazon is building a vast low Earth orbit network under the banner of Project Kuiper, a broadband system designed to beam connectivity to customers on the ground. The company’s first operational batch, sometimes described collectively as Amazon Leo, has already shown up in astronomical surveys as conspicuously bright objects that rival some of the naked eye stars they pass by. A recent analysis of Amazon Internet Earth satellites in LEO found that these spacecraft are luminous enough to be observable without telescopes, a direct challenge to the dimming thresholds recommended by the International Astronomical Union, or IAU, for preserving dark skies essential for astronomy.
Those concerns echo earlier alarms about other megaconstellations, particularly Starlink, whose thousands of spacecraft have already transformed twilight skies into moving grids of light. Astronomers who track satellite impacts say Amazon’s New Satellite Constellation Raises Concerns Over Night Sky Brightness because each additional fleet compounds the problem, increasing the odds that any long exposure image will be crossed by a bright trail. In that context, Amazon’s new entries are not arriving in a vacuum, but into an orbit already crowded with reflective hardware that is steadily eroding the once predictable darkness above observatories.
What the new brightness study actually found
The latest warning about Amazon’s satellites comes from a study that examined how often and how intensely they intrude on astronomical images. Researchers compiled nearly 2,000 observations of the constellation, then compared those measurements with the IAU’s suggested brightness ceiling for low orbit spacecraft. The work, posted on Arxiv and described as not yet peer-reviewed, concluded that Amazon’s internet beaming satellites are consistently brighter than those limits, which means they are statistically likely to disrupt a significant fraction of wide field surveys and time sensitive observations.
In practical terms, that brightness translates into ruined data. One report on Amazon Internet Earth satellites describes how long exposure images, especially those taken during twilight when satellites are sunlit but the ground is dark, are now far more likely to be bisected by saturated streaks. For facilities that scan huge swaths of sky to catch fleeting events like supernovae or near Earth asteroids, every bright trail is not just a cosmetic blemish but a potential missed discovery, because software can struggle to distinguish a transient cosmic flash from the glare of a much closer satellite.
How Kuiper and Starlink turned orbit into contested territory
Amazon’s Project Kuiper is entering an orbital neighborhood already dominated by SpaceX, which operates the largest commercial fleet of satellites in history. SpaceX currently has the largest fleet of satellites, with its Starlink constellation numbering more than 4,000 spacecraft and plans to grow the fleet to 12,000, a scale that has already reshaped the economics of the space economy. The size and scale of that project have raised alarms among astronomers, who note that bright, orbiting objects can interfere with observations and increase the collision hazard in Earth’s orbit, concerns that now extend to any new entrant that follows a similar template.
As Amazon ramps up launches, its satellites are being compared directly with Starlink hardware in terms of brightness and orbital design. Astronomers have already documented how satellites can streak across images, interfere with radio observations, or mimic faint cosmic sources, as detailed in analyses of how Satellites affect deep sky surveys. The addition of Amazon’s constellation, which is also targeting low Earth orbit altitudes, means that multiple corporate fleets are now competing for the same orbital shells, multiplying the number of reflective surfaces that can catch the Sun and flare into telescopes at exactly the wrong moment.
Amazon’s promises to coordinate, and where they fall short
Amazon has not ignored these criticisms, at least on paper. The company’s Project Kuiper has signed a coordination agreement with the National Science Foundation, a deal that commits it to work with ground based observatories to reduce the impact of its satellites on optical and radio astronomy. According to that agreement, Project Kuiper plans to launch a low Earth orbit satellite constellation to provide broadband internet to customers on Earth, while sharing orbital data and cooperating with the Defense Laser Clearinghouse coordination system to avoid harmful interference with sensitive instruments.
Further details of the arrangement show how Amazon is trying to frame itself as a responsible operator. In coverage of Jun, Amazon, Project Kuiper Signs Coordination Agreement With National Science Foundation, the company is described as agreeing to reduce the operational impact on observatories by implementing dynamic beam avoidance and other technical measures. Another account, By Rachel Jewett, Rocket, notes that Project Kuiper will share information about satellite positions and radio emissions so that telescopes can plan around them. These are meaningful steps, but they do not directly solve the core problem highlighted by the brightness study, which is that the satellites themselves are still reflecting too much sunlight into the sky.
Can design tweaks and dialogue really dim the sky?
Amazon and its peers argue that engineering changes can bring their satellites into line with scientific expectations. The company has said that Amazon are also working with astronomers to minimise the risk of orbital debris and reduce the visibility of satellites, a claim echoed in discussions of how LEO networks affect IoT, agritech, and marine industries. Amazon scientists are also active in conferences and events worldwide, where they contribute and learn from the latest research, as well as engage with the global science community, a sign that the company wants to be seen as part of the solution rather than the problem. Those efforts, highlighted on Amazon platforms, suggest a willingness to iterate on satellite design, from darker coatings to sunshades and attitude tweaks that reduce glints.
Yet the broader record of megaconstellations shows how hard it is to meet astronomers’ expectations in practice. A study of multiple fleets concluded that satellite constellations fall short of meeting brightness goals, noting that even operators who tried to dim their spacecraft still struggled to reach the IAU’s recommended thresholds. That paper did not include satellites from Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation, which started launching its operational satellites later, but it warned that future systems might need to adjust their design if needed. SpaceX, for instance, has worked with astronomers on ways to reduce the brightness of its Starlink satellites, experimenting with darker paint and visor like structures, yet even its larger V2 satellites remain visible in many images. Amazon Leo is described in one assessment as an instance in which the operator established a dialogue with astronomers early in the design phase of their constellation, but the same report notes that the satellites still exceed the IAU recommended brightness limits, underscoring the gap between consultation and compliance.
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