Among the new big stones that Amazon counted, only Europe offered it

Amazon now has hundreds of launch-ready satellites parked in Florida, waiting to join the Low-Earth Orbit Internet network, an Amazon executive said Tuesday.

“They’re tied up, and they’re sitting in warehouses waiting for flights,” said Steve Metayer, vice president of Amazon Leo Production Operations, in a conference call with reporters. “And now we’re making several satellites a day.”

Metayer spoke on the eve of the company’s next mission, when the Ariane 64 rocket will launch twelve Amazon Leo satellites into orbit from a spaceport in French Guiana. Liftoff is expected at 7:53 a.m. ET (11:53 UTC) on Wednesday.

Arianespace is taking off

Arianespace from France has emerged as a difficult partner for Amazon, which, until now, has had many of its 331 satellites launched on Atlas V rockets. However, Amazon has only one project left on this rocket, which is operated by United Launch Alliance, since the vehicle is due to retire.

Establishing the group of his many constellations of Leo, Amazon bookings rise for three large, new rockets four years ago: 18 launches for the Ariane 6 rocket, 12 launches for Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, and options for 15 more; and 38 launches of the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.

But of the new rockets, only Arianespace has delivered so far, with two launches completed this year, another on Wednesday, and more to come. Neither New Glenn (also owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) nor Vulcan launched Amazon’s satellites.

“As far as Arianespace is concerned, they’re going to go up,” Metayer said. “They’re very reliable on their launch dates, and they’re very reliable and safe on what they put into orbit. So we’ll continue to look forward to the next 16 launches with them under our current contract, and we see them as players for a long time beyond that.”