The commercial space universe is still awaiting its own "devil's rope" -- also known as barbed wire, the invention of which allowed the homesteading and settling of the American West -- to drive more space utilization, said Space Foundation Director-Research and Analytics Micah Walter-Range at a foundation event Tuesday. He said NASA technology development and transfer of that tech to the commercial sphere could be a key policy for helping drive the domestic space industry. He said challenges facing the Russian launch industry could extend for some time, with Russia -- which usually dominates the space launch market -- accounting for 17 launches last year, vs. 22 each in China and the U.S. That loss of market share continued into 2017, he said, with Russia facing possibly its smallest number of launches since the early 1960s. But the Russian launch industry took a nose dive after the fall of the Soviet Union and eventually rebounded, Walter-Range said. He said talk of an emerging Chinese commercial launch industry will likely follow similar models some other nations have followed, with government-supplied vehicles and a commercial marketing arm. Meanwhile, the U.S. workforce dedicated to space is seemingly declining -- compared with employment growth in Europe and Japan -- likely due more to the sector becoming increasingly integrated with other industries so counting jobs that are purely space becomes more problematic, Walter-Range said. He said Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with the $1 billion in company stock he's cashing out annually for Blue Origin operations, gives him the 10th or 12th largest space budget on the planet, depending on how U.S. agency spending is counted. Walter-Range said the 232 satellites launched in 2016 marked the second consecutive year of declines, mostly due not to a particular downturn in the market but nanosatellite constellations causing a statistical blip.

The National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board chairman's letter to the co-chairs of the PNT national committee brings up numerous concerns about Ligado's potential to interfere with GPS reception, said Aviation Spectrum Resources Inc. (ASRI) in an FCC docket 11-109 filing posted Friday that included the July 5 letter. Given those concerns -- such as finding that Ligado-sponsored test efforts are incomplete and not credible and that harm can happen to precision GPS users even half a mile out from the planned transmitter sites under the reduced power levels of the Ligado proposal -- the FCC shouldn't act on Ligado's pending license modification applications until the threat of interference to aviation and precision GPS receivers is addressed, ASRI said. Ligado on Monday called it "yet another filing that does not add anything since it is a rehash with no new analysis or new data. We have confidence the Commission will make a decision that is based on facts, rigorous analysis and the public’s interest." Meanwhile, in a blog post Monday, Ligado CEO Doug Smith said the economic potential of IoT and smart cities will come only "if the FCC, NTIA, and other policymakers work to efficiently review and optimize spectrum policy." He said digital networks, while privately funded and built, are unduly regulated and there's a need for faster regulatory review.

There's no reason to preclude fixed satellite service use in the 17.8-18.3 GHz band for blanket-licensed terminals on a secondary basis since that band would be used for downlinks and thus not pose an interference risk to fixed service (FS) operators, Boeing, Inmarsat SES/O3b and ViaSat said in an FCC docket 16-408 filing posted Friday. Existing power flux density limits also will protect FS operators from satellite transmissions, they said. FSS operators committed to ensuring they can provide continuous service to blanket-licensed terminals even if the band isn't available in a given area due to FS interference, they said.

Hughes wants FCC International Bureau approval for 20 gateway earth stations to communicate with the HNS 95W satellite, the application for which is pending before the bureau (see 1706220002). In a set of bureau applications posted Thursday (for example, here), it said the proposed gateway earth stations would be in 14 states, and HNW 9W would provide broadband services in the Ka- and Q/V-bands.

Ligado keeps trying to brush away legitimate interference concerns, such as its proposed terrestrial wireless network posing bigger interference concerns in the band adjacent to Iridium's 1617.775-1626.5 MHz spectrum than current and future satellite operations in the same spectrum do, Iridium said in an FCC docket 11-109 filing posted Thursday. Iridium said Ligado continually tried to chip away at the 2003 ancillary terrestrial component order rules about gating and technical requirements, so Ligado's plan now is far beyond what was envisioned in the ATC rules. It said Ligado is engaged in "pure spectrum arbitrage," because it let its satellite business wither. Iridium also denied Ligado assertions that it inflated the interference risk via worst-case scenarios, saying it used LTE parameters used multiple times in past interference assessments. Ligado in a statement said it has "confidence that the Commission can distinguish between fact and fiction and between the license modification and 1675-1680 MHz auction proceedings." Iridium repeatedly brought up concerns about interference from Ligado's broadband network (see 1706290043 and 1612140061).

Allowing fixed satellite service allocation on a secondary basis in the 17.8-18.3 GHz band but limiting deployment to individually licensed earth stations is unwise and unnecessary, SpaceX said in an FCC docket 16-408 filing posted Thursday. It said non-geostationary satellite constellations would use the band for downlinks, so those can't cause interference to terrestrial fixed service in the band, and instead the NGSO earth station would be susceptible to FS transmission interference. It said such FS interference is unlikely since FS transmitters usually radiate in horizontal or near-horizontal directions using narrow-beam antennas, while NGSO receiver user terminals have low gain toward the horizon. Letting NGSO operators deploy blanket-licensed user terminals in the band on a secondary basis aligns with FCC goals of spectrum efficiency, it said.

As it looks to harmonize FCC 2016 approval of its broadband terrestrial low-power service plans across jurisdictions worldwide (see 1612230060), Globalstar had talks with regulatory agencies in 15 countries beyond what it announced in May, CEO Jay Monroe said in an earnings call Thursday. He said the company expects to have filed a number of applications internationally for terrestrial use of its 2483.5-2500 MHz band spectrum by year's end. He said it expects FCC approval of its mobile satellite service license modification application "within days," after the comment period ended in July without opposition (see 1705250011). He also said the company is in partnership discussions "with numerous companies" that either have or want their own terrestrial networks, since Globalstar doesn't expect to build its own.

The FCC is still studying Ligado's LTE applications, Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday after the commissioners' August meeting. Asked whether the agency has enough information in the record to make a decision, he didn't comment except to stay the agency is "still taking input from all stakeholders." The company has repeatedly pushed the agency for a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spectrum-sharing NPRM and approval of its LTE plans (see 1706050056).

The global space economy in 2016 was $329 billion, up roughly 2 percent from 2015 due to growth in the commercial space sectors more than offsetting small declines in government spending, the Space Foundation said in an news release Thursday. It said the $253 billion in commercial space activities was 76 percent of the global space economy.

With satcom increasingly dominated by high-throughput satellites (HTS), satellite operators need to be able to sell data capacity in bulk while still having some bargaining power and value-add, Northern Sky Research (NSR) analyst Blaine Curcio blogged Wednesday. NSR also said HTS payloads need to be designed with anchor clients in mind or, even better, with precommitted anchor clients that will help design the system.