Before authorizing any supplemental coverage from space (SCS) operation, the FCC must ensure incumbents operating in the same bands won't suffer harmful interference, EchoStar representatives urged during meetings with leaders of the Space and Wireless bureaus. In a Space Bureau filing Friday recapping a meeting with Bureau Chief Julie Kearney and Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt, EchoStar said interference protection also must extend to adjacent bands and other geographies. No SCS technical rules can be finalized before studies showing these technical requirements will address co-channel, adjacent channel and adjacent geography interference, it said. Alternately, SCS applications could be required to submit evidence subject to public comment showing that there wouldn't be harmful interference, EchoStar said. SCS use of terrestrial spectrum in the U.S. should require consent from, and appropriate lease agreements with, the terrestrial licensee as well as the licensee with a meaningful role in managing interference, it said.

2024 should bring more vertical and horizontal consolidation across the satcom industry as well as major moves in AI integration, Analysys Mason's Vivek Prasad blogged Wednesday. He said EchoStar's Jupiter-3 will drive geostationary orbit market growth in the Americas, while SpaceX's Starlink broadband growth will slow versus 2023 as it expands in emerging economies where average revenue per user is lower. Prasad predicted Eutelsat/OneWeb will make inroads in the enterprise very small aperture and backhaul markets, while Amazon will likely launch Kuiper satellites in earnest this year. He said big demand drivers in satcom this year will include network upgrades and expansion in backhaul and trunking as well as autonomous maritime platforms and unmanned aerial systems. While the video market's size will continue its slide, it will remain the largest single source of satcom market revenue, he said.

On-orbit services companies Orbit Fab and ClearSpace will partner on in-space refueling offerings, they said Wednesday. Under a memorandum of understanding, they will create refueling space architecture that uses an Orbit Fab fuel depot and ClearSpace refueling shuttle, they said.

New EchoStar and its board "are on track to bankrupt" its Dish Network subsidiary after having stripped it of its assets, investment fund Buxton Helmsley Group wrote the company Monday. It accused Dish, prior to EchoStar's acquiring it (see 2401020003), of having made a variety of material misstatements about its finances. It said the pending EchoStar/Dish debt swaps (see 2401170012) can't go forward until those "accounting shenanigans" are corrected. The combined companies didn't comment Tuesday.

SpaceX and Amazon's Kuiper are jointly lobbying the FCC for expanded satellite use of the 17.3-17.8 GHz band. In a docket 20-330 filing Tuesday, they recapped a meeting with FCC Space Bureau staffers where they urged a non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service downlink allocation in the 17 GHz band. They said that while geostationary orbit operators had asked the FCC to delay considering NGSO use in the band until after the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, the adoption of an NGSO allocation at WRC-23 (see 2312150012) "moots any arguments" for inaction. At an FCBA event Tuesday, the Space Bureau said finalizing rules for NGSO use of the 17 GHz band was a 2024 priority (see 2401230043).

The satellite communications user terminals market should reach $238 billion by 2030, ABI Research said Tuesday. That market includes traditional very small aperture terminals (VSAT), broadband global area network terminals, satellite phones and 5G mobile devices, it said. Andrew Cavalier, satellite communications senior analyst, said SpaceX and Amazon's Kuiper will be the front-runners in satellite broadband due to their low cost, flat panel terminals. ABI said by 2030, annual shipments of flat panel VSAT terminals should reach 2 million annually.

The FCC Space Bureau approved Quantum Space's planned non-geostationary orbit cubesat, part of an eventual network delivering services between the Earth and moon (see 2307310001). In the bureau approval this week, it deferred Quantum's request to use the 400.15-401 MHz band.

An update to the FCC's international communications filing system (ICFS) is "about 85% there" and should rollout in the second half of the year, Space Bureau Chief of Staff Kerry Murray said Tuesday. At an FCBA event where 2024 priorities were discussed, Murray said the bureau is working with software developers on updating the system, which dates back to the 1990s. Murray said there will likely be a move this year to refresh the record on earth stations in motion for non-geostationary orbit satellites. Deputy Bureau Chief Jennifer Gilsenan said the bureau also hopes this year to focus on finalized rules for NGSO operations in the 17 GHz band. Pointing to April's NGSO fixed satellite service sharing order and Further NPRM (see 2304200039), she said finishing that proceeding is also a 2024 priority. Gilsenan said the bureau is working with the Wireless and other bureaus on a supplemental coverage from space framework; an SLS NPRM was adopted in March (see 2303160009). Associate Bureau Chief Stephen Duall said that in-space servicing, assembly manufacturing is "very much on our radar" for 2024, following the 2022 ISAM notice of inquiry (see 2208050023). He said September's satellite application streamlining item (see 2309210055) was part of a longer initiative that the bureau continues to work toward. Asked about better coordination with NTIA when it comes to frequency bands also used by federal users, Murray said the ICFS modernization should help with that. "The technology is the problem," she said. The ICFS update should make the system more user-friendly by incorporating such capabilities as auto population of fields. Bureau Chief Julie Kearney said among the chief complaints the bureau receives are those about the ICFS.

The space industry is in disagreement over FCC reliance on case-by-case reviews of orbital debris disclosures. Pushing back on SpaceX criticisms of the orbital debris order on reconsideration on January's FCC agenda (see 2401180064), Viasat said Friday in docket 18-313 that different satellite systems pose various space sustainability risks. Accordingly, "there is nothing improper" about taking a case-by-case approach to application reviews. While backing a case-by-case approach, Astroscale said that an "expansive reliance on case-by-case analysis, without a strategy for evolution, will inhibit efficiency." It urged that the draft order include a commitment that the Space Bureau will issue guidance on orbital debris mitigation information disclosures and case-by-case reviews. With such guidance, operators wouldn't have to rely as much on "identify[ing] emerging disclosure precedents across hundreds of disparate" international communications filing system files, it said.

NOAA's Office of Space Commerce placed orders with three U.S. commercial companies for space situational awareness data and services, it said Friday. Contracts were awarded to Comspoc for orbit determination services, and Slingshot Aerospace and LeoLabs for SSA data and services focused on low earth orbit, it said. The agency "is in the planning phases" to issue an additional order for data quality monitoring services, it added. NOAA said the commercial SSA orders are part of an effort to incorporate commercial capabilities into its Traffic Coordination System for Space cloud-based IT system that will provide SSA and space traffic coordination services to commercial and civil space operators.