SPACE VIEW PARK, FL – A big crowd watched the beautifully nighttime liftoff of the 6th batch of operational broadband satellites for the Amazon Leo constellation aboard the most powerful version of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fl, Monday evening, April 27 – soaring majestically below a rising Moon, as seen from Space View Park in Titusville!
Enjoy our photos taken by Ken Kremer for Space UpClose – led by the long duration streak shot using my fisheye lens.
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 551 rocket carrying the Amazon Leo 6 mission comprising 29 operational broadband satellites for the Amazon Leo constellation lifted off at 8:53 p.m. EST (0053 UTC) from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL.
We watched from Space View Park, Titusville, FL along the Indian River lagoon as the Atlas V rocket flew on a north-easterly trajectory soaring over the Max Brewer Bridge
This counts as the 2nd ULA Amazon launch during the month of April and also counts as the fastest turnaround time ever between Atlas V rockets at pad 41 – beating the prior record by 3 days!
The Atlas V successfully delivered the 29 spacecraft LEO over the course of 10 separate deployments, which began about 21 minutes after liftoff and concluded 16 minutes later.
It also tied the record for heaviest ever payload
“ULA has precisely delivered a total of 168 satellites for Amazon Leo enabling rapid expansion of their Leo constellation,” said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Atlas and Vulcan programs.
“ULA is focused on launch and delivery of our customer’s payloads to orbit. This launch continues our legacy of empowering our customers’ mission, and through launch, partnering to unlock value for their commercial business goals.”
This was supposed to be the 2nd launch of a double header.
Unfortunately the SpaceX Falcon Heavy ViaSat-3 F3 launch scheduled for Monday morning was scrubbed due to poor weather. See separate story
ULA used a streamlined prelaunch processing flow procedure for this launch campaign
There were just 24 days between Leo 5 and Leo 6 Atlas V launches
“ULA implemented a compressed timeline for this mission enabling the team to roll to the pad and launch the rocket in approximately 14 hours. The condensed timeline is a step towards ULA’s future increased launch cadence, said ULA.
Overall this brings the total of Amazon Leo broadband satellites launched to 270
Amazon aims for an initial constellation of over 3200 satellites to compete with SpaceX Starlink
There are two remaining Amazon Leo missions on the Atlas V rocket.
ULA’s next launch is the Atlas V Amazon Leo 7 mission.
This launch is planned for May 22, 2026, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla.
To date Atlas V has now flown six Amazon Leo missions, SpaceX Falcon 9 has launched three and Arianespace’s Ariane 6 rocket has launched one.
The next Amazon Leo launch on Ariane 6 is upcoming April 28
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