Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board okayed Viasat's pending purchase of Inmarsat, the companies said Tuesday. The $7.3 billion deal was announced in November (see 2111080038).

SpaceX plans to add an option where Starlink satellite broadband service can be donated to users, CEO Elon Musk tweeted Monday. He was responding to a tweet by Chipper CEO Ham Serunjogi saying he would "be glad to commit $$ to donate Starlink to schools & hospitals in Uganda."

The evidence on record, including Viasat and Dish Network technical analyses of equivalent power flux density (EPFD), is enough to justify the FCC dismissing or deferring consideration of SpaceX's proposed second-generation constellation at least until the company modifies its plans in a way that ensures EPFD compliance, multiple geostationary orbit operators told the International Bureau Friday. Its planned second-generation constellation will exceed applicable EPFD limits in the Ku and Ka bands, "causing impermissible levels of interference" to multiple geostationary satellite networks, said EchoStar, DirecTV, Inmarsat, Dish and Viasat. SpaceX didn't comment Monday.

The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority referred the proposed Viasat/Inmarsat deal to a phase 2 investigation, after its decision last week that the deal could hurt competition, the agency said Friday. The satellite operators said they will work with CMA "to demonstrate how the planned combination of the companies will benefit customers by improving efficiencies, lowering costs, and increasing the availability of in-flight connectivity around the world." The $7.3 billion deal was announced in November (see 2111080038).

SpaceX "is not asking to recoup past expenses" for its deployment of its Starlink satellite broadband system in Ukraine, but it "also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households," CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday in response to reports he wants DOD to pay for the system's continued deployment there, since the cost could reach $400 million over the next 12 months. "This is unreasonable." In "addition to terminals, we have to create, launch, maintain & replenish satellites & ground stations & pay telcos for access to Internet via gateways,” he said: “We’ve also had to defend against cyberattacks & jamming, which are getting harder. Burn is approaching ~$20M/month.” Musk's comments followed Ukrainian military officials' claims earlier this month that Starlink outages have been hindering Ukraine’s ability to repel the Russian invasion (see 2210070082). DOD Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed during a Friday news conference the department has been in communication with SpaceX about the Starlink deployments but noted "there are other entities" besides that company that the U.S. can "partner with when it comes to providing Ukraine what they need on the battlefield. I'm not going to show our hand right now on exactly who those are or who we're talking to."

Commercial space operators increasingly are interested in nuclear power sources in space, and it’s unclear how the FAA launch license process, which includes a payload review, will handle those cases, said space lawyer Franceska Schroeder Friday at University of Nebraska's annual space law conference in Washington. She said the National Space Council has said there will be more government focus on managing such issues from a payload and on-orbit operation perspective. Tackling the emerging threat of rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) -- something deliberately coming close to commercial or military satellites for a prolonged period of time, often for purposes of espionage or intellectual property theft -- carries a variety of legal and technological hurdles, space national security experts said. Better space situational awareness is a must but won’t fix the problem, said Brian Weeden, Secure World Foundation program planning director. Norms are tough to define, and "keep-out zones" are difficult to protect, he said. Guardian satellites working as blockers are of limited use for many threats, he said. Under the Outer Space Treaty, there is no such thing as national appropriation in space, so claiming a zone falls within a gray area legally, said Lt. Col. Susan Trepczynski of the Air Force Operations and International Law Directorate. As space gets more congested, defining such zones becomes increasingly difficult, she said. Lt. Col. Seth Dilworth, Air Force deputy chief-space law, said the drawback with creating RPO norms is it handcuffs U.S. behavior when other nations that are engaged or likely to engage in RPOs aren't likely to take up those norms. Images taken in space of other things in space are rapidly becoming a commercially available product, Weeden said. He said NOAA's once-heavy restrictions on non-earth imaging are loosening notably more quickly than the agency's restrictions on earth remote viewing have.

SES is appealing the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond's rejection of its lawsuit against Intelsat for the demise of the C-Band Alliance (see 2210030050), per an appeal notice Friday in docket 20-32299. SES sought $1.8 billion in damages.

The White House's National Space Council plans virtual listening sessions Nov. 14 and 21 for input about novel space capabilities and innovative missions and experiences with regulatory agencies, said a notice for Friday's Federal Register. Registration deadlines are Nov. 13 and 20, respectively.

The GAO's report of various policy options for orbital debris and satellite reflectivity (see 2209300064) highlights the need for the FCC to do an environmental review of SpaceX's second-generation constellation plans, Viasat told the International Bureau Thursday. The report underscores that SpaceX's Starlink could be responsible for the possible environmental impacts laid out in the report. "As such, it is both appropriate and necessary for the Commission to closely evaluate the likely environmental impacts of SpaceX’s proposed operations now, in the context of this application proceeding," Viasat said. SpaceX didn't comment.

Dish Network petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc of its August decision upholding FCC approval of a license modification to SpaceX's Starlink system (see 2208260035). In the docket 21-1123 petition Tuesday, Dish said the three-judge panel should have decided the FCC needed to consider Dish’s evidence of likely interference and that the FCC incorrectly waived a rule requiring an ITU favorable finding.