Arianespace’s Canopée cargo ship is heading to French Guiana ahead of the first Amazon Leo mission. The first batch of Amazon Leo satellites arrived in French Guiana in November ready for launch.

The Canopée ship is collecting relevant parts for the launch from suppliers in France. The Ariane 6 components are now in the midst of a multi-stop journey aboard the Canopée and picking up other components and will then travel to French Guiana.

Arianespace has a contract to deliver 18 Ariane 6 launches for Amazon’s constellation — a large portion of the Arianespace 6 launch backlog. The first mission, VA267, will be the first for the Ariane 64 configuration with four boosters. This configuration is designed to deliver over 20 tons to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). The mission will launch 32 Amazon Leo satellites.

“Adding a heavy-lift rocket like Ariane 6 to the manifest will allow us to deploy more satellites at a time and help accelerate deployment plans for Amazon Leo — we look forward to continuing to work with the Arianespace team as we prepare for that inaugural mission and subsequent launches on Ariane 6,” said Arianespace.

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Tags: Amazon, Arianespace, LEO