SCS Systems Must Demonstrate Radioastronomy Protection, NRAO Says

Supplemental coverage from space services could require "a very high degree of isolation" from the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ), the National Radio Astronomy Observatory said Monday in docket 23-135. Before SCS service starts, it should provide technical analyses showing how it will achieve the isolation needed to protect radioastronomy operations in the NRQZ while also assessing its impact on instruments like the observatory's Very Large Array in New Mexico that don't get the formal protections of the NRQZ.