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FCC Working With NASA

LEO Satellite Boom Seen Driving Need for Updated Smallsat Rules, With FCC NPRM Possible

Mushrooming plans for non-geostationary (NGSO) mega constellations should drive the FCC to update or tweak some of its satellite regulations but don't necessitate a wholesale revamp of the rules, speakers said at an FCBA CLE. The rules set up years ago governing, for example, in-line events didn't anticipate the existence of massive NGSO constellations and thus might need to be revisited, FCC International Bureau Satellite Division Chief Jose Albuquerque said Tuesday night. "The regulatory framework is already there -- it's just small adjustments."

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A key way the satellite industry can help guarantee its access to spectrum is to use what it has, Albuquerque said. Satellite use of the 28 GHz band was one of the key reasons that the FCC decision to give 5G access to that band (see 1607140052) didn't go as far as it could have, he said.

The federal government, particularly federal satellite operators, increasingly are talking about matters like intercepting orbits and the lack of standards or criteria for determining if there is a point at which an excessive operational burden is placed on a satellite having to maneuver too frequently to avoid collision with a cubesat or retired satellite from a large constellation, said Karl Kensinger, Satellite Division deputy chief. The FCC increasingly is looking at collision risk issues in multi-satellite deployments, sometimes asking applicants to go through a NASA-created assessment tool for projecting collision risk, he said. The commission also increasingly is asking experimental authorization applicants to set up communication with the DOD's Joint Space Operations Center regarding conjunction warnings and to share data about the satellite's positioning and trajectory so as to improve the tracking and lead to better modeling about when a collision is likely, he said.

Satellite spectrum access issues "are moot if we risk our access to space," said House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee member Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla. Low earth orbit (LEO) still is dealing with debris from China's 2007 anti-satellite missile system testing, and that nation apparently is continuing work on directed energy and co-orbital anti-satellite technology as well as on jamming and cyberattacks, he said. Bridenstine said LEO space debris volumes inevitably will grow, with collisions like the 2009 one between Iridium and Russian Space Forces satellites predicted to occur every five to nine years. He said the blowback China saw after the 2007 testing likely means nations will continue anti-satellite technology testing but actually shooting down satellites as part of that testing "is less likely than it used to be."

Bridenstine's policy recommendations include that the U.S. use private sector satellite operators more for its civil satellite needs, with that more-distributed network deterring targeting by hostile nations, and that the Federal Aviation Administration take over space situational awareness work currently done by the DOD. He said NASA should lead an interagency effort to identify technology for mitigation and remediation of space debris and come up with a plan for addressing it. The lawmaker said he hopes to make his fellow legislators more aware of the satellite industry's spectrum needs in light of the FCC increasingly forcing sharing with or giving bands to terrestrial wireless in ways that could hurt satellite operations. Bridenstine said he would like to see Congress designate bands for satellite, give satellite more primary access in certain bands or prevent sharing in bands that have public safety use, such as for weather monitoring.

Some existing rules don't make sense for the cubesat market, which doesn't rely on the traditional, two-way communications satellite model satellite lawyer Tony Lin of Hogan Lovells, said. The rules governing how to demonstrate the lack of risk in situations with intercepting orbits need greater clarity, he said. Clients "want to know 'What do I need to show?'" while FCC processes now don't spell that out and can end up necessitating multiple rounds of documentation, Lin said. Orbital specifications ultimately might be more pertinent than constellation size, given that launchers of experimental satellites, such as universities, often don't know what they need to be doing, Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup said.

One area ripe for analysis is the emerging market of in-orbit satellite servicing, Kensinger said, since that business deals with objects in orbit deliberately moving close to one another. That raises the question of what are good practices in such situations, he said. He also said the agency is considering issuing an NPRM regarding space debris issues, perhaps incorporating into its rules some NASA criteria and industry practices that have developed.

Multiple satellite operators made a pitch for a light regulatory touch on NGSOs. "It's important we not snuff out this emerging industry before it finds its successes," said Jeff Trauberman, vice president-government operations, Boeing Space, Intel & Missile Defense Systems. There is some regulatory tension between traditional wideband operations in the Ku-band and the need to both ensure that high-throughput spot beam operations can enter the market and also respect those incumbent wideband operations, said SES Vice President-Spectrum Management and Development America Kim Baum.

Multiple speakers said spectrum sharing is becoming the norm. OneWeb Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Kalpak Gude said the industry needs to proactively develop new sharing techniques: "We need to do [sharing] in an offensive way, not a defensive way." Added Baum, "Our jobs more and more are going to be finding ways to share with other systems."