The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology gave a green light to the inaugural test launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, according to a special temporary authorization granted Wednesday. The authorization expires Nov. 1.
Spire Global has the green light to operate non-voice, non-geostationary mobile-satellite service in the U.S. in the 399.9-400.05 MHz uplink. In an order in Monday's Daily Digest, the FCC Space Bureau said Spire must ensure its operations don't interfere with Orbcomm's adjacent-band activities at 400.15-401 MHz. The bureau waved off SpaceX-suggested conditions about orbital debris, saying the grant addresses only operations in an additional frequency band. But it said the grandfathering period for the commission's rule requiring non-geostationary orbit satellites deorbit within five years of their missions being complete expires in September, and Spire must supplement its orbital debris mitigation plan before deploying any more satellites afterward. It said that supplement should expand information on collision risks, how Spire will comply with the five-year post-mission disposal rule and how many of its satellites have failed at altitudes above 350 km.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a variety of space and aerospace organizations are throwing their support behind the Secure U.S. Leadership in Space Act (HR-7470). In a letter Wednesday to sponsor and co-sponsor Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Reps. Neal Dunn, D-Fla., and Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., the Chamber and others said the bill -- which would let spaceports issue municipal bonds for expansion projects -- would help ensure spaceports and communities can capitalize on economic investment and employment opportunities. Signers of the letter include the Aerospace Industries Association, Commercial Spaceflight Federation, GPS Innovation Alliance and Global Spaceport Alliance.
Amazon's Kuiper and SpaceX are clashing over SpaceX's request that the FCC Space Bureau impose an object-years condition on the Kuiper system. In an application for review, SpaceX said the bureau's granting a license modification for Kuiper in April "unreasonably deviated" from commission policy because it failed to impose the object-years condition, though it has been applied to multiple other non-geostationary orbit systems. In its opposition last month to the review application, Kuiper called the AFR "meritless." Kuiper said a 100 object-years condition -- that being a cap on the total cumulative time to deorbit failed Kuiper satellites -- isn't appropriate due to orbital characteristics, and the proposed Kuiper system is very different from SpaceX's proposed, much-larger, second-generation constellation, which had a 100 object-years condition on it. Kuiper's arguments against the AFR are "an Orwellian spin on the facts," SpaceX told the bureau this week. The bureau has applied the object-years condition numerous times, it said. The FCC can't wait for a rulemaking to address the reliability risk Kuiper presents, it said.
Lockheed Martin contracted with Firefly Aerospace for as many as 25 launches through 2029, Lockheed said. The launch agreement covers a variety of future Lockheed spacecraft, Lockheed added.
The FCC should deny Sateliot's petition for providing mobile satellite service in the 2 GHz band as it rejected a similar request from SpaceX, EchoStar told the agency's Space Bureau this week. EchoStar said Sateliot's proposed uplinks and downlinks in the band would interfere with its 5G broadband network. In addition, it said Sateliot's application makes "no practical sense," as Sateliot supposedly wants to use the 2 GHz band for narrowband IoT service for mobile network operators, but EchoStar, the only mobile network operator in the band, "does not want this service." In its April petition, Sateliot said its planned 10 smallsats and blanket-licensed terminals would minimally affect the band's other users. Sateliot said that while EchoStar's Dish Network is the sole licensee of the terrestrial AWS-4 service in the band, creation of that service and Dish's license were "never intended to transform the 2 GHz MSS band into primarily terrestrial spectrum."
Intelsat is pressing its case across the FCC's 10th floor for phasing in the Space Bureau's FY 2024 regulatory fees over five years. In a docket 24-85 filing Tuesday, Intelsat recapped meetings with the offices of Commissioners Anna Gomez and Nathan Simington at which it urged a phase-in "to avoid causing serious economic hardship to payors." Intelsat previously met with the offices of the other commissioners to make the same case.
The FAA signed off on the fourth test flight of SpaceX's Starship heavy rocket, with the company having met safety and other licensing requirements, the agency said Tuesday. Approval follows November's failed Starship test launch (see 2402270008). SpaceX said the launch could come as soon as Thursday.
The FCC should focus on the collective risk that satellite constellations pose instead of looking at the issue on a per-satellite basis, the Outer Space Institute said Monday in docket 18-313. It said the approaches of the European Space Agency or France "would be a considerable improvement" in regulatory clarity and system safety over the U.S. method. The FCC should treat operator claims that satellites will burn up entirely on re-entry skeptically. Instead, the FCC should require evidence of this. Pointing to vaporized metals entering the upper atmosphere by those satellite re-entries, the institute urged the FCC to study the issue "and be prepared to impose suitable mitigations." Any satellite operator exceeding the 100 object-years threshold -- the number of years each failed satellite remains in orbit, added across all the satellites -- should be barred from further deployments until the causes have been addressed, the institute said. It said operators should remove large debris coming from 100 object-years violations.
IoT constellation operator Sateliot will begin offering commercial service with four satellites scheduled for a July launch, it said last week. Sateliot said it secured $217 million in recurring revenue contracts from more than 400 clients in 50 countries.