Space Bureau Talks Earth Station Licensing as Part of Transparency Push

One of the more common earth station special temporary authority snafus the FCC Space Bureau encounters in applications is the questionable use of the STA category, Earth Station Licensing Division Chief Franco Hinojosa said at the bureau's earth station licensing open house Wednesday. When an STA application is for a time period of close to 180 days or when it needs extensions, it raises the question whether an STA is the proper route. STAs are by definition supposed to be for a limited duration, he said. Wednesday's event follows a Space Bureau open house held in November as part of the bureau’s transparency initiative (see 2311010033). Bureau Chief Julie Kearney said another open house, covering orbital debris, would be held in late February. Wednesday's open house saw Space Bureau staff discussing issues ranging from whether the international communications filing system allows more than three attachments to an application (it does), to the state of the 2018 freeze on accepting new upper C-band earth station registrations (still in place, for now). Hinojosa said among the errors the bureau sees in STA and modification applications, another that frequently appears is missing or incomplete information. An STA application that refers to information found in past authorizations instead of repeating it slows the process, he said. The bureau processed a record 2,804 satellite and earth station applications in 2023, with increased earth station in motion applications helping drive that volume, Kearney said.