Since the FCC authorized Amazon's Kuiper plans in 2020 (see 2007310057, NASA's experience with low earth orbit constellations has shown the need for more scrutiny before launch on areas that could affect NASA operations and the safety of its assets, the agency told the FCC International Bureau Thursday. Citing Kuiper's pending modification of that authorization, NASA recommended Kuiper mitigate collision risks by maintaining a conservative separation from human space flight vehicles such as the International Space Station during ascent and deorbit phases. It also recommended Kuiper do an analysis showing its full constellation won't be a significant source of light pollution affecting astronomical observations, and that the analysis be made publicly available. NASA said it doesn't anticipate any RF interference impacts to its operations resulting from Kuiper's plans. It said all large constellation operators should design and operate their satellites using the 2019 federal orbital debris mitigation standard practices. It said the growth of mega constellations is raising concerns about reduced availability of safe launch windows, especially for missions requiring instantaneous or short launch windows such as planetary missions. NASA said there should be planning for conjunction and interference mitigation at a national and international level. The National Science Foundation separately said it continues to discuss with satellite operators means of preventing their constellations from affecting ground-based astronomical observations. It said it's urging satellite designs that avoid main-beam illumination of radio astronomy sites, and that it's working with operators to develop recommendations for minimizing impacts to optical and infrared astronomy. NSF said options it's pushing include reducing optical brightness via darkening of satellites, deflecting light away from the ground and providing orbital information to astronomers for work on scheduling observations around satellite locations. It said Kuiper has taken a leadership role in those talks with astronomers.

SpaceX is giving rural America "a back seat to gamers on mountain tops and luxury RVs," Public Knowledge told an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per an ex parte post Wednesday in docket 20-443. Citing delayed equipment shipments to rural households that have ordered Starlink, PK said the FCC should ensure SpaceX fulfills its mission of serving rural America before it can "speed after the luxury vacation market." It said SpaceX's waiver request also helps it undermine the FCC's ongoing analysis of whether to open the 12 GHz band to sharing. SpaceX didn't comment.

Neither AST nor Lynk addressed broader policy considerations on repurposing terrestrial spectrum for satellite use, in proposed satellite-delivered mobile service plans, Hughes told the FCC International Bureau Tuesday. Nor did they address how much their services would preclude other applications, the impacts of inevitable launches of larger constellations than they have proposed, it said, urging the commission to deny their applications and start a general proceeding on the implications of reallocating wireless frequencies for use by satellite systems.

A record 1,713 commercial satellites were launched in 2021, up 40% over 2020, the Satellite Industry Association said Wednesday. Commercial satellite launches were up 20% over 2020, it said. It said space generated $386 billion revenue globally, up 4% over 2020, with commercial satellites generating 72% of that business. It said satellite manufacturing revenue was $13.7 billion, up more than 12% year over year. It said launch revenue was $5.7 billion, up 8%. It said U.S. firms built 87% of commercially procured satellites launched in 2021.

Download speeds for SpaceX's Starlink broadband service are up 38% in the U.S. over the past year, from averaging 65.72 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 90.55 Mbps in Q1 2022, Ookla said Tuesday. It said average speeds in Canada were up nearly 58% over the same span, from 61.84 Mbps to 97.40 Mbps. It said average upload speeds decreased: from 16.29 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 9.33 Mbps in Q1 2022 in the U.S. and 16.69 Mbps to 10.70 Mbps in Canada. It said median latency was up slightly, from 40 milliseconds to 43 in the U.S., and 51 to 55 in Canada. For many users, that latency increase is likely negligible, it said. It said Viasat in the U.S. in Q1 was averaging speeds of 22.31/2.81 Mbps and latency of 628 milliseconds, and HughesNet averaged 22.19/2.65 Mbps and latency of 724.

SpaceX objections to the Viasat/Inmarsat deal (see 2206130026) aren't transition-specific and involve licenses that aren't even subject of the applications, Visat and Inmarsat said in replies Tuesday (docket 22-153). Citing objections by Amazon to Viasat and Inmarsat both holding dormant satellite authorizations in the V band, against FCC rules, they said if the applications remain pending at the time the agency acts on the transfer of control applications, they will "take appropriate action and seek relief as needed to ensure compliance."

The updated orbital debris mitigation plan of Amazon's Kuiper got criticisms and suggested conditions from other satellite operators, in FCC International Bureau in comments this week. Kuiper still hasn't evaluated the space safety risks of its planned operations and hasn't identified strategies for mitigating those risks, Viasat said. Unaddressed issues include evaluating aggregate Kuiper collision risks and providing information about the basic physical characteristics of each Kuiper satellite. It said the mitigation strategies Kuiper identifies are inadequate. It urged the application be held in abeyance. "There is no reasonable basis upon which the Commission could approve Kuiper’s application; the public interest does not permit the Commission to endanger space safety while Kuiper 'figures it out,'" Viasat said. SpaceX said Kuiper leaves "serious questions" about its ability to operate safely, often seemingly shifting the burden of safe operation to other systems. It said before FCC processing of its application, Kuiper should make clear how it intends to safely do its proposed elliptical deorbits, and provide more detail about how its satellites avoid collision during orbit raising. Kepler said that similar to the FCC conditioning one of its SpaceX approvals on SpaceX having a smaller orbital tolerance in the upper latitude ranges because of its overlap with another system, the agency should require Kuiper to maintain a 10 km distance from Kepler orbits.

The FCC could consider licensing a subset of SpaceX's proposed second-generation satellite constellation and deferring consideration on the rest until the agency can address the challenges it presents, Amazon's Kuiper told the International Bureau last week. It said that would be a compromise between SpaceX urgings for approval and the concerns that second-gen constellation could hurt competition and innovation among other emerging non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service systems. Kuiper said approving the satellites tied to one of the 18 ITU filings that comprise the second-gen system would let the FCC defer consideration on whether SpaceX must demonstrate compliance with equivalent power flux density limits across the entire system and avoid orbital overlap, while still allowing near-term deployment. SpaceX didn't comment Monday.

SES' SES-22 -- the first of six satellites it procured as part of the C-band clearing (see 2111160008) -- is slated to launch June 29 from SpaceX’s Space Launch Complex 40 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the satellite operator said Friday. The satellite is expected to start operation in early August, it said.

O3b's pending modification of its market access grant, which would add 70 satellites to its 20-satellite medium earth orbit system (see 2005270010), raised some concerns from other satcom operators, in FCC International Bureau filings this week. O3b's expansion plans are relatively modest compared with mega constellations, but the FCC should still "take a hard look at the orbital safety implications" of its proposal, Viasat said. It said the agency should obtain information on aggregate collision risk associated with the expanded system and the increased risk of collisions due to the changes in orbital parameters over time. Viasat also said the agency should ensure the larger system continues to protect geostationary orbit systems. Amazon's Kuiper said the increased number of satellites means the modified market access grant should be treated as newly filed as part of the 2020 processing round, and subject to the same conditions as other 2020 processing round licensees, including having to protect prior-round systems. Iridium urged denial of the part of the Ob3 application on intersatellite links in the 19.4-19.6 GHz band, since it's not clear from O3b's application whether such non-conforming operations would interfere with Iridium's primary operations in the band. O3b asked that the links portion of its application be held in abeyance to allow discussion of Iridium's concerns in light of the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference's Agenda Item 1.17, dealing with intersatellite links.