Lynk Global's fifth satellite in its planned "cell towers in space" constellation was deployed into low earth orbit and is beginning operations, the company said Tuesday. Lynk said it plans to provide global commercial service in 2022, pending FCC approval and implementation of agreements with mobile network operators. It said it plans other launches for later this year and next.

FCC approval of SpaceX's license modification (see 2104260077) should have addressed geostationary orbit interference concerns about SpaceX’s multiple ITU filings and its equivalent power flux density compliance, Hughes officials told an aide to FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and International Bureau staffers, per a filing Friday. SpaceX doesn't dispute its ITU filings could be misused to avoid EPFD compliance, Hughes said, urging the agency to require on reconsideration that SpaceX put in an ITU finding that explicitly says the joint effects of multiple ITU filings associated with its constellation was taken into account for verifying EPFD compliance and confirm that EPFD data files given to requesting parties reflect the operations of its complete system. SpaceX didn't comment Monday.

Earth imaging satellite operator Planet Labs plans to combine with special purpose acquisition company dMY Technology to become publicly traded with an equity value of roughly $2.8 billion, Planet said Wednesday. It said along with the dMY transaction, investors including a variety of BlackRock funds and Google are investing $200 million in dMY. The combined companies will have the $200 million and $345 million in dMY's trust account to expand into existing and new markets and build more software and machine-learning-enabled data products and services. Planet said the deal is expected to close later this year. It said Planet's current management, including the co-founders, CEO Will Marshall and Chief Strategy Officer Robbie Schingler, will continue to lead the public company.

Citing a request by space launch companies for a longer comment and reply deadline on possible dedicated spectrum allocations for commercial space launches (see 2106300038), the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology delayed the docket 13-115 deadline by 30 days. Comments now are due Aug. 11, replies Sept. 10, per Wednesday's order.

SpaceX satellites did 2,219 collision avoidance maneuvers between Dec. 1 and May 31, and in five instances other satellite operators told SpaceX they would prefer to maneuver, the company told the FCC international Bureau in a semiannual status report Friday. SpaceX said its maneuver threshold -- 1 in 100,000 chance of collision -- is a "magnitude more sensitive than the industry standard" of 1 in 10,000.

Many federal agencies continue to follow the "legal nonsense" from the NTIA indicating they don't have to work with Ligado while there are outstanding petitions for reconsideration of the FCC's license modification approval, Ligado said in a docket 11-109 quarterly status report posted Thursday. It said it contacted agencies about assessing whether they have GPS devices that might need repair or replacement, but only one has engaged with it. "It is surprising that government agencies that just last year claimed to be concerned about their devices are unwilling to take Ligado up on its offer," it said. Ligado said it relocated its GPS augmentation services to frequencies above 1545 MHz to protect GPS. It said the move means more protection for high-precision devices, since augmentation signals will have a 9 MHz guard band protecting them from Ligado's future terrestrial operations. NTIA didn't comment.

Thursday's launch of 36 OneWeb satellites, the company's eighth launch, will let it start providing broadband connectivity across the Northern Hemisphere north of the 50th parallel, it said in a series of tweets. The launch brought the size of its constellation to 254, it said. It said it received a signal from all 36.

Eutelsat and Telesat said their parts in the C-band transition are largely complete, in quarterly transition reports Thursday in docket 18-122. Eutelsat said 39 of the 48 incumbent earth station antennas it serves have been transitioned, though additional antenna systems might be added. It said services migration above 4 GHz is 90% complete and all 48 antennas should be complete by August. Telesat said filters have been installed on all earth stations that didn't elect to opt out of the satellite operator handling the transition. It said it anticipates completing the transition in August

Intelsat's seven C-band replacement satellite programs "continue to progress on schedule," as do all other transition deliverables, per its C-band transition status report in docket 18-122 Wednesday. It said it has moved all customer services in the contiguous U.S. out of the lower 120 MHz on its fleet, and started Phase 2 transition activities. It said it has delivered all required encoding upgrades and all the integrated receivers/decoders needed to meet the Phase I milestone have been installed. Most compression equipment required for Phase II has been ordered, it said. Filter deployment in 46 of the top 50 partial economic areas began June 1 and about 23% of Phase 1 filter installations are done, it said. Embratel said it expects to deorbit its Star One C1 satellite, which provides C-band services in the U.S., in late August or early September. It said one customer remains on the satellite and will be transitioned to another satellite before deorbiting. It said it has tried -- unsuccessfully -- for more than a year to contact its last indirect U.S. customer, a Florida earth station receiving C-band services through an Embratel distributor, to inform it about the C-band relocation and C-band capacity available on SES' SES-4 satellite. It said that earth station's license lapsed in December. Embratel said it no longer expects to rely on the SES arrangement to transition any of its C-band customers.

The 3,371 satellites in orbit at the end of 2020 was up 144% from 2015, with low earth orbit satellites driving most of that growth, the Satellite Industry Association said Wednesday in its annual "State of the Satellite Industry" report, prepared by Bryce Tech. Communications was 48% of that 3,371, up from 28% in 2019, followed by remote sensing (20%), U.S. entities operate more than 1,900 satellites, some in partnership with other countries, it said. There are 562 active satellites in geostationary orbit, eight more than in 2019, with most providing communications, it said. Overall satellite industry revenue in 2020, at $271 billion, was flat year over year.