The satellite industry faces an electric propulsion thruster supply bottleneck, with the largest producer -- Russia's EDB Fakel -- banned from Western supply chains and numerous other EP vendors unable to fill the gap, Quilty Space's Caleb Henry wrote Monday. "As it turns out, [EP] thrusters, especially the Hall-Effect thrusters [proliferated low earth orbit] operators fancy, are extremely hard to manufacture at scale," he said. While several U.S. companies have developed Hall-Effect thrusters of their own or licensed the technology, almost all are still struggling to scale production after years of effort, he said.

AST SpaceMobile's first five commercial BlueBird satellites for direct-to-device service successfully launched Thursday, the company said. In an earnings call with analysts last month, it said the five will provide non-continuous cellular broadband service nationwide across the U.S.

The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) oversaw 130 launch and reentry operations so far this fiscal year, more than triple the FY 2020 figure. "And the year isn't over yet," Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator-commercial space transportation, said Tuesday during a Senate Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee hearing, according to submitted testimony. There are 26 licensed commercial launch and reentry operators, he said, with the number of licensed commercial space operations likely doubling by FY 2026. The agency averages 151 days to issue a license. AST staffing has reached 150 people, letting personnel "address some of the growing demands that have been placed on our office." He added that the White House's FY 2025 budget request provides funding for additional staff.

Spectrum Five (SF) dropped its petition before the FCC without legitimate explanation, and only reinstatement of it will vindicate BIU's interest as a secured lender to the satellite company, petitioner BIU told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in an opening brief Monday (docket 24-1189). BIU is appealing the FCC's dismissal of the financier's petition seeking reinstatement of the SF complaint alleging that Intelsat is interfering with SF's spectrum license (see 2404110053). Alleging license violations by Intelsat and complicity by the FCC in allowing Intelsat to continue unlicensed operations, BIU in its opening brief said the fraudulent withdrawal of the SF petition "must not be allowed to stand or Intelsat’s egregious violations will be allowed to continue unabated." The unauthorized withdrawal of the petition "amounts to a fraud on the Commission itself," it said. The FCC didn't comment Tuesday.

Liberty Media's planned spin-off and reorganization of SiriusXM's ownership structure (see 2406180005) is complete, the two said Monday. They said Sirius XM Holdings started trading Tuesday on Nasdaq under the symbol SIRI.

With the satellite industry rapidly becoming more competitive, SES hopes it can close its proposed purchase of Intelsat by June, the companies told FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, according to a docket 24-267 filing posted Monday. Since the spring announcement of the deal (see 2404300048), nearly 700 satellites have been launched and hundreds more are expected before the commission completes its review, they said.

Albedo Space is eyeing February for the launch of its initial commercial earth exploration satellite service satellite. It plans having a 24-satellite constellation in orbit by April 2031, it told the FCC Space Bureau in an application posted Monday. It said the constellation, capturing visible and thermal imaging, will operate in very low earth orbit of 320 km.

The Defense Department has made progress on upgrading GPS with a military-specific signal -- M-code -- that resists interference and jamming, but it still faces challenges in developing the needed ground, space and user equipment, GAO said Monday. The ground segment modernization needs more testing and demonstration, and the Air Force's development of receivers that process M-code has been delayed, GAO said. It added that delays in satellite delivery raise the possibility of DOD's goal of having M-code-capable satellites in continuous operation being pushed back by years.

A SES purchase of Intelsat will let the combined companies better compete with the "robust and growing competition" they face, particularly from non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite entrants but also terrestrial connectivity, SES and Intelsat said in a docket 24-267 filing posted Friday. SES is seeking approval of license transfers as part of its proposed $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat (see 2405310004). Combining SES' multi-orbit constellation with Intelsat's complementary suite of geostationary orbit assets and extensive ground network will give New SES a multi-band GSO fleet, a stronger medium orbit system (MEO) and a cloud-based open network architecture, they said. New SES will be better positioned to make long-term investments in satellite capacity, they said. Currently each operator on its own might have difficulty closing the business case to invest in a replacement satellite because of fragmented demand; however, New SES will have the resources, cost structure and better business case for investing in its satellite fleet. The deal also would make investment in a next-generation MEO system more likely, they said. New SES will boast a GSO/MEO constellation "with the necessary throughput, capacity, range, and latency characteristics to enable the combined company to more vigorously compete, including with well-financed [low earth orbit] competitors," they said. They said New SES can be more efficient with satellite capacity use, freeing more usable, contiguous band spectrum to provide other services. They said that since both count the U.S. government as a customer, New SES "will support national security by creating an even more reliable partner and supplier that offers a resilient, secure, highly capable, and seamless satellite network operating in multiple orbits and frequency bands."

Satellite-based maritime connectivity revenue reached $2.1 billion in 2023, up from $1.8 billion the year prior, Valour Consultancy said Thursday. A big driver was increased spending on SpaceX's Starlink maritime low earth orbit service, as well as some vessels using Eutelsat's OneWeb LEO service, it said. More than 20,000 vessels used Starlink by the end of 2023, and the L-band maritime mobile satellite service market saw revenue of $470 million, down slightly from 2022, said Valour: As of 2023, there were roughly 116,000 active MSS terminals worldwide subscribing to the legacy maritime satellite services. Inmarsat and Iridium have notable subscriber bases there, though the geostationary orbit very-small aperture terminal marketplace has leveled off at around 42,000 vessels globally, it said: It's likely GEO service will become a backup to LEO, similar to MSS. Valour said that 2023's dip in GEO VSAT revenue is expected to continue into this year and that the number of vessels subscribing to LEO service will likely surpass GEO VSAT sometime in 2026.