Astranis plans to start providing satellite-delivered high-speed connectivity to Alaska in early 2023 with its Arcturus satellite, it said Wednesday in an FCC International Bureau application seeking approval for launch and operation of the geostationary orbit fixed satellite service satellite. It said the Ka-band satellite is to launch late this year. Pacific Dataport will be the exclusive distributor of Arcturus' broadband capacity and services, it said. The FCC already has granted partial U.S. market access to the Bermuda-flagged Arcturus, but Astranis has decided an FCC license "would be more appropriate," the company said.

The Satellite Industry Association recommends the National Space Council make regulatory changes to the U.S.' commercial remote sensing rules and its export control regime for RF remote sensing satellites and data. In a white paper Wednesday, SIA said commercial remote sensing rules should change to reflect emerging applications such as RF remote sensing and the use of hyperspectral and short-waved infrared remote sensing. It said the "Fundamental Goal" for language in the national security policy directive adopted in 2003 should be updated to include economic leadership and commercial space innovation. In a separate paper, the industry group said there should be an interagency review of existing International Trafficking in Arms Regulations rules and "a more pragmatic policy and licensing approach" to ITAR rather than the assumption all RF remote sensing satellite products for all users and use cases fall under the State Department rules. It said an alternative could be putting RF remote sensing with other space systems without ITAR controls.

Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board okayed Viasat's pending purchase of Inmarsat, the companies said Tuesday. The $7.3 billion deal was announced in November (see 2111080038).

Thirty-six OneWeb satellites are slated for launch Saturday from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre, the company said Tuesday. The company's 14th launch will bring the low earth orbit constellation to 462 satellites, more than 70% of what is needed for global coverage, it said. OneWeb said it remains on track to activate global coverage next year.

Citing supply chain challenges, Hughes asked the FCC for a one-year extension of the milestone date required in its license for launching and operating the EchoStar XXIV satellite. In an International Bureau application Monday, Hughes said the broadband satellite requires custom components and facilities "that have been severely impacted by supply chain disruptions and other restrictions caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, and production-related delays associated with the development, production, and testing of the components of the satellite." It asked that the milestone deadline be moved to March 20, 2024.

The evidence on record, including Viasat and Dish Network technical analyses of equivalent power flux density (EPFD), is enough to justify the FCC dismissing or deferring consideration of SpaceX's proposed second-generation constellation at least until the company modifies its plans in a way that ensures EPFD compliance, multiple geostationary orbit operators told the International Bureau Friday. Its planned second-generation constellation will exceed applicable EPFD limits in the Ku and Ka bands, "causing impermissible levels of interference" to multiple geostationary satellite networks, said EchoStar, DirecTV, Inmarsat, Dish and Viasat. SpaceX didn't comment Monday.

SpaceX plans to add an option where Starlink satellite broadband service can be donated to users, CEO Elon Musk tweeted Monday. He was responding to a tweet by Chipper CEO Ham Serunjogi saying he would "be glad to commit $$ to donate Starlink to schools & hospitals in Uganda."

Commercial space operators increasingly are interested in nuclear power sources in space, and it’s unclear how the FAA launch license process, which includes a payload review, will handle those cases, said space lawyer Franceska Schroeder Friday at University of Nebraska's annual space law conference in Washington. She said the National Space Council has said there will be more government focus on managing such issues from a payload and on-orbit operation perspective. Tackling the emerging threat of rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) -- something deliberately coming close to commercial or military satellites for a prolonged period of time, often for purposes of espionage or intellectual property theft -- carries a variety of legal and technological hurdles, space national security experts said. Better space situational awareness is a must but won’t fix the problem, said Brian Weeden, Secure World Foundation program planning director. Norms are tough to define, and "keep-out zones" are difficult to protect, he said. Guardian satellites working as blockers are of limited use for many threats, he said. Under the Outer Space Treaty, there is no such thing as national appropriation in space, so claiming a zone falls within a gray area legally, said Lt. Col. Susan Trepczynski of the Air Force Operations and International Law Directorate. As space gets more congested, defining such zones becomes increasingly difficult, she said. Lt. Col. Seth Dilworth, Air Force deputy chief-space law, said the drawback with creating RPO norms is it handcuffs U.S. behavior when other nations that are engaged or likely to engage in RPOs aren't likely to take up those norms. Images taken in space of other things in space are rapidly becoming a commercially available product, Weeden said. He said NOAA's once-heavy restrictions on non-earth imaging are loosening notably more quickly than the agency's restrictions on earth remote viewing have.

SpaceX "is not asking to recoup past expenses" for its deployment of its Starlink satellite broadband system in Ukraine, but it "also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households," CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday in response to reports he wants DOD to pay for the system's continued deployment there, since the cost could reach $400 million over the next 12 months. "This is unreasonable." In "addition to terminals, we have to create, launch, maintain & replenish satellites & ground stations & pay telcos for access to Internet via gateways,” he said: “We’ve also had to defend against cyberattacks & jamming, which are getting harder. Burn is approaching ~$20M/month.” Musk's comments followed Ukrainian military officials' claims earlier this month that Starlink outages have been hindering Ukraine’s ability to repel the Russian invasion (see 2210070082). DOD Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed during a Friday news conference the department has been in communication with SpaceX about the Starlink deployments but noted "there are other entities" besides that company that the U.S. can "partner with when it comes to providing Ukraine what they need on the battlefield. I'm not going to show our hand right now on exactly who those are or who we're talking to."

SES is appealing the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond's rejection of its lawsuit against Intelsat for the demise of the C-Band Alliance (see 2210030050), per an appeal notice Friday in docket 20-32299. SES sought $1.8 billion in damages.