Amazon finally left the launchpad. On April 28 a ULA Atlas V carried the first 27 operational Project Kuiper satellites to orbit, the opening deployment of Amazon's 3,236-satellite answer to Starlink and the true start of the LEO broadband duopoly race, six years after the project was announced. The same day, the FCC's open meeting delivered a satellite-friendly rulemaking package, proposing to modernize licensing and squeeze more intensive use from spectrum allocated to space services. And EchoStar closed the week deepening its distress narrative, with filings and reports making clear the company viewed the FCC's gathering scrutiny as a threat to its ability to meet obligations, days before Chairman Carr's letters made the review official.
The tariff other shoe dropped, and SpaceX turned up the spectrum pressure. On April 14 the administration launched a Section 232 national security investigation into semiconductor and electronics imports, confirming that last week's smartphone exemption was a bridge to sector-specific tariffs rather than a reprieve. SpaceX chose the same day to escalate at the FCC, filing new data it said proved EchoStar barely uses its AWS-4 spectrum and renewing its demand for a sharing proceeding in the 2 GHz band. And the FCC teed up its April 28 open meeting with an agenda heavy on satellite modernization, previewing rules to streamline licensing and expand spectrum flexibility for the booming space economy.