Space infrastructure firm Redwire completed its purchase of QinetiQ Space, and received an $80 million investment from Bain Capital and AE Industrial Partners that will be used to finance the deal and support Redwire growth, Redwire said Tuesday. Redwire said the $31.6 million QinetiQ deal gives it larger scale and more ability to innovate across various growth areas, plus more exposure to European customers.

Viasat will get its requested six additional months (see 2208220003) to launch and begin operating its ViaSat-3 satellite, the FCC International Bureau said Monday. It said the extra time is needed due to COVID-19 pandemic-related delays beyond the company's control, and the new milestone date is April 30.

Stellantis and SiriusXM extended their distribution agreement into 2027, the companies said Monday. SiriusXM is standard across most of the carmaker’s vehicles, and SiriusXM with 360L, combining satellite and streaming service, will make its Alfa Romeo debut in the Tonale in spring and the Dodge Hornet later this year, they said.

OneWeb gave complete responses to initial questions from the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, and the committee now is doing an initial review of whether its U.S. market access grant modification will pose a risk to U.S. national security or law enforcement interests, the multi-agency group told the FCC International Bureau Monday. The review began in March (see 2203290001).

SpaceX's pending request to provide mobile satellite service in the 1610-1617.775 MHz, 2483.5-2500 MHz and 2020-2025 MHz bands (see 2209070003) "is a tremendous opportunity to serve a public benefit" by expanding service and helping close the digital divide, Kepler told the FCC International Bureau last week. Kepler, which also is seeking OK to use the 2020-2025 MHz bands for MSS, said operations in the band in coming years will be critical for meeting rising demand for MSS offerings such as IoT applications.

SES/O3b's non-geostationary orbit spectrum sharing proposal -- giving earlier-round systems more spectrum during in-line interference events -- satisfies FCC objectives of a clearly defined sharing standard, everyone incentivized to coordinate, and new entrants having guaranteed spectrum access, they said in docket 21-456 Thursday. Recapping a meeting with International Bureau Chief Tom Sullivan, SES/O3b said other proposals "are fatally flawed." They said a focus on performance degradation requires detailed data about each system's operating parameters and isn't suitable for being put into a rule. Either a performance degradation or interference-to-noise metric approach leaves at least one party not incentivized to coordinate, they said.

Assembly of a pair of prototype Amazon Kuiper satellites should be done by year's end, and then head to United Launch Alliance for launch, Amazon Senior Vice President-Devices and Services Dave Limp said Thursday in a Washington Post webinar. The company announced it was setting up a 172,000-square-foot satellite production facility in Kirkland, Washington -- a sign, Limp said, it's moving into Kuiper's manufacturing phase. He said Kuiper ultimately will need to turn out at least one to three satellites daily. He said Kuiper remains on track to have at least half its 3,236-satellite constellation in orbit and operational by July 2026. He said Kuiper plans to test some means of reducing light reflectivity on its prototypes, but didn't elaborate. Asked about competition with SpaceX's Starlink, which already has more than 3,000 satellites in orbit, Limp pointed to hundreds of millions of potential subscribers globally to satellite-delivered broadband who currently are unserved or underserved. "There will be plenty of room for two constellations," he said. He said a potential Kuiper advantage is its receiver dish costs, which will be lower than Starlink's. He said Amazon currently has cost of its dishes at less than $400 each. He said Kuiper's integration with Amazon's AWS cloud business will also allow for lower latency and more security. Asked about antitrust worries as the company enters internet provision, Limp said he has talked to dozens of members of Congress and they are strongly supportive of Kuiper. He said the billions of dollars in capital spending necessitates a big company like Amazon being involved. Lawmakers representing rural areas "know how important broadband is for their constituents," he said. "I think there is going to be a lot of support for this."

Comments are due Dec. 27, replies Jan. 24, on the FCC"s proposal to allow non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service downlinks the 17.3-17.8 GHz band and the technical rules to prevent interference in the band, per a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register. The FCC adopted the 17 GHz NPRM in August (see 2208040055).

There's general agreement in FCC docket 21-456 on some non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) spectrum sharing issues, but the incomplete record on others necessitates a further notice to get clarity, SpaceX said Monday. Those items needing clarification include the correct interference protection criteria for earlier-round NGSO systems, whether those protections should have a sunset and if good-faith coordination rules should require sharing proprietary technical information, it said, adding it discussed the items with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington.

No judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit backed Dish Network's petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc of its decision upholding FCC approval of a license modification to SpaceX's Starlink system (see 2210120061), per twin orders (here and here) Monday denying the petition (docket 21-1123).