The FCC made a mistake when it put a greater portion of satellite regulatory fees on the backs of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) licensees, reducing the burden on GSO licensees, and should reverse the unfair allocation, SpaceX told an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. In a docket 24-85 filing posted Tuesday, SpaceX said that if the agency instead goes forward with its proposed alternative regulatory fee methodology for satellites, it should use a logarithmic scale rather than relying on the size of a constellation.
Citing lasting effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, Theia is requesting more time to meet the deadlines for its non-geostationary orbit earth observation constellation launch and operation. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Friday, Theia said the pandemic -- which struck soon after the agency authorized the company's 112-satellite constellation in May 2019 (see 1905090031) -- resulted in supply chain and financial market shocks that had "a devastating effect" on its ability to build and deploy the constellation. Theia asked to extend the milestone deadline to have 50% of its constellation launched and operational, which was Friday, and its final milestone deadline of May 9, 2028, by which time the rest is to be in orbit, to Dec. 31, 2026, and Dec. 31, 2028, respectively.
SpaceX's Starlink is set to gain sizable market share in in-flight connectivity (IFC) service, growing the number of connected aircraft it serves from a few hundred today to more than 10,000 by the end of 2034, Valour Consultancy said Wednesday. Starlink's IFC success is ballooning as airlines' confidence in the service grows, Valour said, noting that SAS Scandinavian Airlines chose Starlink IFC this year, and Emirates will likely follow. Starlink will have 39% of the commercial aviation market share by 2034, Valour estimated, while its growth in business aviation could be more gradual. New competitors are entering IFC, with Intelsat's multi-orbit service up and running and connectivity from Panasonic Avionics and Hughes Network Systems expected later this year.
The number of software-defined satellites in orbit is expected to soar from over 300 in 2024 to more than 10,000 by 2031, ABI Research said Thursday. The software-defined satellites in orbit now are mostly from Iridium, Spire Global and Iceye and represent about 3% of total active satellite deployments, ABI said. Pointing to Amazon's Kuiper, SpaceX, Globalstar and Chinese mega constellations, it said software-defined satellites will represent 26% of active deployments by 2031.
As part of its plan to launch a space-to-space and space-to-ground quantum key distribution network, quantum computing company IonQ said Wednesday it would buy synthetic aperture radar satellite Capella Space. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025, pending regulatory approvals, it said. Capella holds multiple FCC licenses. IonQ said Capella's top-secret signals capabilities will help it build global quantum-secure networks. Financial details weren't released.
SpaceX provided false equivalencies about EchoStar's challenge to the out-of-band emissions limit waiver granted to SpaceX, EchoStar said Thursday (docket 23-135). EchoStar said the FCC Space Bureau failed in the waiver to determine that waiving the aggregate out-of-band power limit for supplemental coverage from space service was unlikely to cause harmful interference. It added that the waivers that were granted to EchoStar and SpaceX cites in its application for review (see 2504230021) included a bureau finding that harmful interference was unlikely. EchoStar said SpaceX's citations help prove EchoStar's point.
Novel space missions like commercial lunar landings, asteroid mining and orbital infrastructure sit outside the traditional regulatory boundaries of the FCC, FAA and Commerce Department, Morgan Lewis blogged Wednesday. Those activities show a gap in authorizations for nontraditional commercial space missions, it said. There have been proposals for either the FAA or Commerce to have broader oversight, and a blended or hybrid approach could gain traction, it said.
SpaceX likely generated $11.8 billion in revenues in 2024, with its Starlink broadband arm overtaking its space launch arm, Novaspace posted Tuesday. Novaspace said SpaceX's space launch business, which revolves around its Falcon 9 rocket, is increasingly about fleet management. It added that 6% of Falcon 9 flights in 2024 used new boosters, and some individual rockets are flying up to 24 times a year.
The FCC should add co-primary space-to-space allocations for intersatellite service (ISS) in the 18 GHz band, NASA and NTIA recommended in a report last week. NASA and NTIA said the FCC also should adopt a Table of Allocations footnote to ensure that space-to-space links in the band for federal systems are limited to communications with a nonfederal network for space relay purposes. The 2023 national spectrum strategy identified 18.1-18.6 GHz as one of five spectrum bands NTIA should study for potential repurposing (see 2311130007). In their report, NASA and NTIA said that with NASA not building additional tracking and data relay satellites, new ISS allocations in the band will provide regulatory certainty that would support the development of commercial services to meet NASA's space-to-space links needs in the future.
Parties interested in being the space launch frequency coordinator for the FCC's space launch service must divulge any interest they have in FCC licenses, including through subsidiaries or affiliates, said a Wireless Bureau notice for Friday's Federal Register. The bureau announced the mechanism and criteria for frequency coordinator selection, saying applicants must show they can get technical data from licensees and maintain a database of transmitter locations and operational parameters. They also must show knowledge of or experience with wireless telemetry and with space launch and aerospace transmissions. In a separate notice announcing the licensing and coordinating procedures for the space launch service, the bureau said space launch service licensees will have to register the fixed, base, itinerant and mobile stations needed for a launch in the FCC's universal licensing system under its nationwide, nonexclusive license. Launch service licensees can choose up to 5 MHz of their own bandwidth and can request more if they can show why it's needed.