Citing additional jobs at AST's Midland, Texas, manufacturing facility and the 5G race, Midland Development urged FCC approval of AST's pending U.S. market access petition (see 2004140001), in a letter Thursday to the International Bureau.

O3b plans to launch the first three of its next-generation mPower satellites in December, followed by three more in early 2022, it told the FCC International Bureau Thursday. The company is seeking temporary authority to let the non-geostationary orbit satellites communicate with gateway earth stations in Hawaii and Arizona for 180 days starting Dec. 16 during launch and early orbit phase operations and in support of testing.

Eutelsat plans to increase its stake in OneWeb, from 17.6% to 22.9% in exchange for $165 million, it said Wednesday. It said the deal should close by year's end. Eutelsat CEO Rodolphe Belmer said OneWeb's progress in offering global service, "together with the vote of confidence demonstrated by the commitment of both its investors and future customers, makes us even more convinced of OneWeb’s right-to-win in the low earth orbit constellation segment.”

Amazon Kuiper's attempt to claim out-of-band emissions compliance based on aggregate equivalent power flux density limits across multiple ITU non-geostationary orbit system filings would possibly be a circumvention of ITU and FCC rules designed to limit NGSO emissions, Viasat told the FCC International Bureau Tuesday. It said it backed SES/O3b objections to Kuiper's request for removal of a condition to its 2020 authorization (see 2108090003), It said Kuiper arguments that SpaceX didn't face similar conditions about consideration of the joint effect of multiple ITU filings ignores that the SpaceX order earlier this year remains subject to petitions for reconsideration and appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Maintaining that joint effect condition would violate the Administrative Procedure Act because the FCC never explained why it's being treated differently from other NGSO operators, Kuiper said, saying it also goes against commission precedent.

AST's BlueWalker 3 test satellite is expected to go up on a SpaceX launch as soon as March and is designed to communicate with cellphones directly using 3rd Generation Partnership Project standard frequencies in a demonstration of the SpaceMobile system design, AST executives told aides to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, said an International Bureau filing Tuesday. AST said its Midland, Texas, production facilities will eventually have a production capacity of up to six satellites a month. It said it expects to start commercial service in 2023 with a 20-satellite equatorial constellation to allow North American, European and Asian coverage and then full global coverage. It said it has regulatory approvals in six countries and test authorizations in others.

China is leading global competition in space-enabled quantum communications, and the West will likely try to catch up, Northern Sky Research analyst Arthur Van Eeckhout blogged Monday, noting quantum satcom efforts worldwide. He said predictions are for more than 30 such launches by decade's end.

SpaceX's Starlink satellites have been screened from being deployed in orbit for solar array deployment mechanism failures or avionics failures not allowing control in a high-drag environment, the satellite operator told the FCC International Bureau Monday in response to FCC questions about its Starlink status report (see 2109200003). It said the solar array deployment mechanism was modified, and production control changes were made to tackle the avionics failures. It said it's being open about the health of its constellation, but the FCC should look at requiring increased transparency by other operators, such as publishing space situational awareness data.

Absent Congress giving express authority to impose federal financial obligations coming from the Outer Space Treaty onto satellite licensees, the FCC lacks authority to impose an indemnification requirement on satellite operators, industry representatives told Office of General Counsel staffers, per docket 18-313 Tuesday. They said Title III public interest authority "is not limitless" and needs to be tied to the authority to permit the use of RF spectrum. They said an indemnification requirement is unneeded since satellite operators "have a built-in incentive to avoid creating orbital debris and be good actors." Similarly unnecessary is requiring a bond for post-mission disposal, which would penalize operators unable to retire their satellites successfully and those that have taken precautions but can't do so due to risks beyond their control. Participants represented Panasonic, SES, Eutelsat, ABS, Lynk, Telesat, SpaceX, Intelsat, Amazon, Planet, EchoStar, Spire, Boeing, Inmarsat, Astranis, Lockheed Martin and the Satellite Industry Association.

With its plans to start building a private addition to the International Space Station starting in February, Axiom Space needs FCC relief because the agency's current certification on RF devices isn't sufficient to take customer-furnished communications equipment into space, company officials said. In speaking with officials including Office of Engineering and Technology acting Chief Ron Repasi, Axiom sought guidance for integrating communications on payloads owned by internationally represented entities, per a docket 13-115 post Monday. Longer term, there should be a “light-touch” regulatory environment for on-orbit services where licensing supports the growing commercial space sector, Axiom said.

Saying it's done with the Phase I accelerated clearing of the C band, SES in FCC docket 18-122 Monday asked for validation of the company's certification. Eutelsat also has pending a validation application, with validation triggering accelerated relocation payment (see 2109280060).