Amazon Leo — the satellite internet service provider formerly known as Project Kuiper — says it has started shipping its top-of-the-line terminals to select customers for testing.

Today’s announcement serves as further evidence that Amazon is closing in on providing space-based, high-speed access to the internet to customers around the world after years of preparation. Amazon Leo is still far behind SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, but the Seattle-based tech giant has lined up a wide array of partners to help get its network off the ground.

The top tier of Amazon Leo’s global broadband service, known as Leo Ultra, will offer download speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second and upload speeds of up to 400 megabits per second, Amazon said today in a blog post. That’s the first time Amazon has shared details about uplink performance.

During an enterprise preview, some of Amazon’s business customers will begin testing the network using production-grade hardware and software. Amazon said the preview will give its Leo teams “an opportunity to collect more customer feedback and tailor solutions for specific industries ahead of a broader rollout.”

“Amazon Leo represents a massive opportunity for businesses operating in challenging environments,” said Chris Weber, vice president of consumer and enterprise business for Amazon Leo. “From our satellite and network design to our portfolio of high-performance phased array antennas, we’ve designed Amazon Leo to meet the needs of some of the most complex business and government customers out there, and we’re excited to provide them with the tools they need to transform their operations, no matter where they are in the world.”

The 20-by-30-inch antennas for the Leo Ultra terminals are powered by a custom silicon chip that’s been optimized for applications including videoconferencing, real-time monitoring and cloud computing. The service can connect directly to Amazon Web Services as well as other cloud and on-premise networks, allowing customers to move data securely from remote assets to private networks without touching the public internet, Amazon said.

In addition to Leo Ultra, Amazon will offer two lower tiers of service: Leo Nano, which will use a compact 7-inch antenna to provide download speeds of up to 100 Mbps; and Leo Pro, which will use a standard 11-inch antenna supporting download speeds of up to 400 Mbps.

Amazon said it’s shipping Leo Ultra and Leo Pro units to select companies for the preview program. “We’ll expand the program to more customers as we add coverage and capacity to the network,” the company said. Pricing details have not yet been disclosed.

Among the companies listed as customers and partners in today’s announcement are JetBlue, Vanu Inc., Hunt Energy Network, Connected Farms and NBN Co, which operates Australia’s National Broadband Network. Amazon Leo’s other announced partners include Verizon, Vodafone and Vodacom, L3Harris, NTT and SKY Perfect JSAT in Japan, plus DIRECTV Latin America and Sky Brasil.

Photos released today by Amazon show installations of Leo hardware at Hunt Energy facilities, where the network will provide high-speed connectivity for Hunt’s infrastructure assets.

“Hunt Energy Company operates a wide range of energy assets across the globe, and this requires exceptional connectivity to be able to operate, maintain and deliver our products,” said Hunter Hunt, CEO of Hunt Energy Holdings and board chairman of Hunt Energy’s Skyward division. “The combination of Amazon Leo bandwidth capabilities and the secure private link is exactly what we needed.”

JetBlue intends to use Amazon Leo to boost the low-cost airline’s in-flight Wi-Fi service. “Having collaborated with Amazon before, we knew Amazon Leo would share our passion for customer-first innovation,” JetBlue President Marty St. George said. “Choosing Amazon Leo reflects our commitment to staying ahead of what customers want most when traveling, such as fast, reliable performance and flexibility in our free in-flight Wi-Fi.”

Amazon Leo plans to offer high-speed satellite internet service to millions of people around the world, as well as to commercial ventures and government entities. But it still has a long way to go to follow through on that plan.

Over the past year, 153 of Amazon’s production-grade satellites have been launched into low Earth orbit (also known as LEO, an acronym that inspired the newly announced name of the service). Amazon plans to fill out its first-generation constellation with more than 3,000 additional satellites. Under the terms of its license from the Federal Communications Commission, half of those satellites are supposed to be launched by mid-2026. It seems likely that Amazon will seek an extension of that deadline.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is continuing to expand its Starlink constellation and its subscriber base. There are more than 9,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, serving the needs of more than 8 million active customers around the world. Starlink satellites are built at SpaceX’s facility in Redmond, Wash., while Amazon Leo satellites are built nearby at a production facility in Kirkland, Wash.

Amazon is rebranding its ambitious effort to expand global access to high-speed internet: Project Kuiper will now be known as Amazon Leo.

The Seattle-based tech giant announced Thursday that it was renaming its satellite broadband project in the midst of deploying the equipment that will help power it all.

Leo is a nod to “low Earth orbit,” where Amazon has so far launched more than 150 satellites as part of a constellation that will eventually include more than 3,200.

In a blog post, Amazon said the 7-year-old Project Kuiper began “with a handful of engineers and a few designs on paper” and like most early Amazon projects “the program needed a code name.” The team was inspired by the Kuiper Belt, a ring of asteroids in the outer solar system.

A new website for Amazon Leo proclaims “a new era of internet is coming,” as Amazon says its satellites can help serve “billions of people on the planet who lack high-speed internet access, and millions of businesses, governments, and other organizations operating in places without reliable connectivity.”

Amazon said it will begin rolling out service once it’s added more coverage and capacity to the network. Details about pricing and availability haven’t been announced.

Early customers and partners include JetBlue, which in September became the first airline to sign on with Leo, promising faster and more reliable inflight Wi-Fi. L3Harris, DIRECTV Latin America, Sky Brasil, and NBN Co., Australia’s National Broadband Network operator, are also signed up to deploy the service. And agricultural connectivity company Connected Farms inked a deal this week.

During a test in September, executives touted data transmission speeds from the constellation in excess of a gigabit per second.

Amazon’s primary satellite manufacturing facility is in Kirkland, Wash., with some of the components produced at Leo’s headquarters in nearby Redmond. Amazon also has a $140 million, 100,000-square-foot payload processing facility at Kennedy Space Center that prepares satellites for upcoming launches.

Amazon’s multibillion-dollar bid to catch up with SpaceX’s Starlink constellation began in earnest in April with the launch of the first 27 satellites.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy posted on X about the name change and said projects such as Echo and Kindle also had code names early on. And Amazon Devices & Services leader Panos Panay said that he was “psyched for what’s ahead” in his own post on X.

Pretty much every Amazon project starts with a code name. Echo was “Doppler,” our first Kindle was “Fiona,” and our EC2 network device project was “Blackfoot,” after the penguins our AWS team saw while doing the work in Cape Town.

For our satellite network, it was “Project… pic.twitter.com/hJO6kJ9C8y

— Andy Jassy (@ajassy) November 13, 2025

Pumped to share that Project Kuiper is now known as @AmazonLeo, a nod to the low Earth orbit satellites that power our network. The name is new but the mission stays the same: to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world beyond the reach of… pic.twitter.com/6vioBBMrJc

— Panos Panay (@panos_panay) November 13, 2025

Redmond, Wash.-based Kymeta, a mobile satellite communications company, announced Manny Mora as its new president and CEO, effective immediately.

The company, founded in 2012 with backing from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, is ramping up efforts to provide services across the U.S. Department of Defense and allied militaries.

Mora spent nearly 40 years with General Dynamics Mission Systems, leading the Virginia-based company’s Space and Intelligence Systems. In this role he supported the company’s partnerships with DOD, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and others.

“As the defense community modernizes its command-and-control infrastructure, Kymeta is uniquely positioned to deliver mobile SATCOM solutions that perform in the most demanding environments,” said Nicole Piasecki, the executive chair of Kymeta’s board of directors, in a statement.

“Manny Mora brings the operational depth and strategic clarity to scale our impact and strengthen our role as a trusted partner to national security customers,” she added.

Kymeta is riding tailwinds from an aerospace and defense sector being reshaped by advances in software systems, autonomous platforms, satellite communications, and AI.

Kymeta was recently chosen by the U.S. Army as the multi-orbit satellite communications provider for its Next Generation Command and Control pilot. The initiative will use the company’s Osprey u8 terminal technology to provide connectivity for military operators.

“Our breakthrough technology is already transforming how defense and government customers communicate across domains,” Mora said in a statement.

In taking the role, Mora replaces Rick Bergman, a former executive vice president at semiconductor giant AMD, who took the helm in April 2024.

Kymeta makes use of an innovative type of technology called metamaterials to build antennas that can be steered by software, without moving parts. Its hybrid cellular-satellite terminals enable communications in hard-to-reach areas — an application that’s been of particular interest to defense customers.

The company also provides technology for emergency services, maritime operations, wildfire-fighting and other applications.

Kymeta raised $84 million in 2022. Total funding to date is nearly $400 million.