O3b Raises Concerns About SpaceX, Kuiper Interference

Noting the need to protect non-geostationary orbit operators from interference from later-round NGSO systems, O3b urged the FCC International Bureau to not alter Amazon's 2020 authorization and to clarify SpaceX's second-generation constellation authorization. Amazon Kuiper's requested modification, filed in February, asks that it be subject to the same condition as SpaceX's second-gen constellation and be allowed to start deployment before completing coordination and receiving approval from the FCC of its noninterference showing. O3b told the bureau Monday it must mandate that SpaceX or anyone else who might seek similar conditions as SpaceX's second-gen system make publicly available any assessment of its operations' potential to interfere with earlier-round systems. The FCC "cannot leave it up to the interfering party’s discretion whether to subject its analysis to robust and thorough review by potentially affected NGSO operators," it said.