Arguments that the relative risk of non-geostationary orbit satellites depends solely on their altitude ignore factors like constellation size and satellite mass, Viasat said Friday in docket 24-85. Assessing NGSO regulatory fees based on altitude risk alone "would be the epitome of arbitrariness," Viasat said. An NGSO system's size is "an imprecise proxy for staff work [but] it is at least a rational one," and levying regulatory fees in part based on NGSO constellation size "would ensure that the fee burden more closely aligns with the systems that occupy staff time the most," it said. Meanwhile, Intelsat representatives, meeting with FCC Space Bureau and Office of Managing Director staff, said the proposed 40% hike in regulatory fees that will pay for the creation of the Space Bureau is too big a bite to swallow at once. It urged a five-year phase-in.

Pointing to SES' pending purchase of Intelsat (see 2404300048), Access Partnership Growth Director Matthew McDermott wrote Thursday that consolidation "is the only way" legacy geostationary orbit operators can "survive" in the face of SpaceX competition and the declining demand for video service. Without consolidation, new revenue sources are needed and costs must be managed more aggressively, he wrote. "OneWeb and Eutelsat have already come together, and now attention turns to who is next," McDermott noted. There is worry investors will get cold feet about such deals, "concerned that no one can stand up to SpaceX," he added. Creation of the Mobile Satellite Services Association, with members launching a jointly owned network, is another approach, he wrote. "Expect to see more radical solutions as companies fight to secure their corner in an evolving marketplace."

AST SpaceMobile is pressing FCC commissioners for quick action as it seeks a U.S. license. The agency has an amendment from AST SpaceMobile seeking conversion of its pending U.S. market access petition to an application letting it launch and operate under U.S. jurisdiction. In FCC Space Bureau filings this week recapping meetings with aides to Commissioners Nathan Simington and Anna Gomez, AST said it needs quick action. That would then allow routine gateway operations with interference protections at sites where work is already underway. FCC approval also would enable AST to conduct continental U.S. testing once it successfully launches its Block 1 Bluebird satellites into their assigned orbits, it said.

Carnival's cruise ships worldwide are now equipped with Starlink-delivered connectivity, Carnival said Tuesday. The fleet-wide rollout began in late 2022, Carnival said.

SES' O3b is asking the FCC for 26 additional months to meet milestones for making operational its Ka-band satellites authorized in the agency's U.S. market access order. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Monday, O3b said the COVID-19 pandemic initially delayed its mPower satellites. Next, performance deficiencies were discovered in 2023 in the first four mPowers. It said design updates addressing those issues delayed manufacture of later mPowers. It asked that its milestone deadline for having 50% of the mPowers in the U.S. market access application be operational move from June 7, 2024, to Aug. 7, 2026. It also asked that the milestone deadline for the remaining 50% be moved from June 7, 2027, to Aug. 7, 2029.

The FCC Space Bureau signed off on two of Planet Labs' proposed Tanager satellites with some of the conditions SpaceX sought. SpaceX has urged the agency to put similar conditions on numerous operators as were imposed on its second-generation constellation (see 2301180049). In an order in Monday's Daily Digest, the bureau said some second-generation analogous conditions tailored for the specific conditions presented in the Tanager application are "appropriate." It said Planet Labs must report any loss of control of a Tanager satellite at altitudes above 350 km. The bureau also conditioned the Tanager approval on Planet Labs coordinating with NASA and the National Science Foundation. The bureau said it was deferring decisions on the third and fourth Tanager satellites pending Planet Labs submitting additional orbital debris mitigation information.

The FCC license for 112 non-geostationary orbit remote sensing satellites granted to Theia Group in 2019 is now EMTech Global's. That license was satellite startup Theia's "largest asset by far," U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel for the Southern District of New York said in 2021 in a docket 1:21-cv-06995 order appointing a receiver for Theia as part of litigation that investors FCS Advisors brought against the company. LTS Systems bought Theia's assets, including the license, at auction in 2023, with EMTech Global then acquiring the assets from LTS and subsequently seeking FCC OK on transferring the license to an EMTech subsidiary, according to EMTech's transfer application. The Space Bureau approved the transfer Friday, said a notice in Friday's Daily Digest.

SpaceX is winning the wholesale satellite data capacity price war, with prices dramatically lower than what geostationary orbit (GSO) competitors are charging in areas such as enterprise, backhaul and maritime mobility, Analysys Mason analyst Luke Wyles wrote Friday. Shielded by multiyear contracts with customers, GSO operators have time to adapt by adding managed services, he said. GSO high throughput satellite capacity prices for maritime and for oil and gas are down 5.3% this year, and are forecast to decline a further 4.5% in 2025, he said. In-flight connectivity is seeing less price pressure from Starlink so far, but that will change starting in a couple of years, he said.

Firefly Aerospace anticipates a November launch for its BGM1 lunar lander, which plans to deliver commercial, scientific and government payloads to the moon's surface as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the company said in an FCC Space Bureau application Friday. Firefly said it expects the lander to reach the moon about six weeks later, by year's end.

NASA's Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy is seeking feedback for creating a framework that addresses contamination and interference from lunar activity, including RF interference, the agency said Wednesday. It said its questionnaire asks about the breadth of interference and contamination concerns, and it looks to clarify community usage around terms like "interference." It said responses are due June 7.