NEPA Petition Frivolous, SpaceX Says

Congress clearly didn't mean the National Environmental Policy Act to apply to space, since it refers only to the human environment and biosphere, so Viasat "does not come close" to overcoming FCC categorical exclusion for NEPA, SpaceX told the International Bureau Thursday. It opposed Viasat's petition for the agency do a NEPA review of SpaceX's pending license modification (see 2102050003). SpaceX said it's "striking" Viasat didn't raise NEPA concerns with other mega constellations such as Amazon's or its own pending license modification. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recognizes that deployment of a mega constellation like SpaceX's Starlink "would be a 'game-changer' negatively impacting space safety," Viasat emailed us. "Aerospace Corporation tells us that the impact on the atmosphere must be evaluated. A UN working group of astronomy experts tells us that the situation has 'taken a perverse turn as indifferent radio spectrum regulators authorize the launch of mega-constellations.' It is clear that the Biden-Harris Administration cannot turn a blind eye to these concerns.” SpaceX said Hughes questions about supposed noncompliance with equivalent power flux density limits (see 2103080033) were brought up months ago by another operator and addressed. It said it doesn't plan to have more than one satellite communicate with a gateway in any frequency at a time in the 19.7-20.2 GHz portion of the Ka-band.