Amazon's Kuiper constellation is planning to prototype a satellite with a shade on it, and compare what kind of light pollution issues it creates vs. a satellite without, Lisa Scalpone, Kuiper head-country development, said Tuesday at Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum (see 2208160032). It will then outfit its fleet with whatever option makes most sense, she said.
DirecTV is seeking five more years of authorized life from the FCC for its T10 satellite, whose license term expires in September, the company said in a partially redacted FCC International Bureau extension request filed Friday. It said T10 has enough fuel remaining to operate in its orbital slot through February 2027 and then go into a disposal orbit 300 kilometers out from geosynchronous altitude. Dish Network, in challenging DirecTV criticism of opening the 12 GHz band to 5G, noted DirecTV seemingly not planning to replace several aging satellites (see 2208080047), though T10 wasn't mentioned.
Intelsat and OneWeb will partner on an in-flight connectivity service, they said Thursday. They said it's expected to be commercially available by 2024.
Australia's Fleet Space wants U.S. market access under the FCC streamlined licensing procedures for four satellites slated for January launch. The company said in an International Bureau application last week authorizing the Centauri 6, Centauri 7, Centauri 8 and Alpha 1 satellites would expand industrial IoT connectivity for utilities, mining and defense applications inside the U.S. and also give Fleet Space time to iterate and perfect its industrial IoT constellation design.
BlackSky Global wants FCC International Bureau OK to modify the blanket license for its 16-satellite earth exploration satellite service constellation and expand it to up to 30 of BlackSky's third-generation satellites. In a bureau application last week, BlackSky said the third-gen satellite would operate in conjunction with other BlackSky satellites already in operation and ultimately replace them. It said the third-gen satellites will enable higher-resolution images across multiple spectral bands with more frequent revisit rates.
SES and Telesat representatives repeated their case for a broader base of regulatory fee payees, with experimental license holders and broadband internet service providers joining the fees-paying ranks (see 2203150040), per a docket 22-223 ex parte post Monday. The satellite operators joined by OneWeb also told aides to the three FCC regular commissioners the proposal to keep the 80/20 fees split between "other" and "less complex" non-geostationary orbit satellite systems "is unsupported and conflicts with the Commission’s obligation to adjust fees based on updated data."
EchoStar's three-prong Horizons growth plan unveiled in a call with analysts last week could help boost the stock down the road if investors believe it can achieve new growth, Quilty Analytics wrote investors Monday. Quilty said the near-term effects of the first prong -- which involves directing its efforts internally on the most scalable and profitable regions and simplifying and centralizing its business structure -- "will likely be muted." EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan said on the call the second prong is a focus on organic growth, including looking at ways to best monetize fleet capacity once its Jupiter 3 starts offering service. EchoStar said it also is looking for potential complementary acquisitions and plans to go after growth using low earth orbit/geostationary orbit hybrid offerings. Akhavan said the third prong is looking for long-term growth avenues, "including commercialization of our S-band assets and potential M&A opportunities."
Amazon's Kuiper repeated its argument for the FCC approving a subset of SpaceX's second-generation constellation plans (see 2206270001), in a meeting with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per a docket 21-456 ex parte filing posted Friday. That subset approach would let the agency "carefully and reasonably address concerns raised in the Gen2 licensing proceeding while satisfying SpaceX’s request for quick action to enable its near-term deployment plans," Amazon said. It said SpaceX complained that approach would have legal and logistical challenges (see 2207070005), but those challenges "did not prevent SpaceX from successfully requesting grant of a limited subset of its Gen1 satellites to enable its near-term deployment plans." SpaceX didn't comment. Citing the agency's open non-geostationary orbit spectrum sharing NPRM, Amazon urged adoption of an interference threshold for the protection of earlier-round systems based on a degraded throughput methodology.
The FCC International Bureau signed off on SpaceX's request to speed deployment of its satellite broadband service to the polar regions before the Starlink constellation is sufficiently deployed to provide polar service (see 2205170002). The special temporary authority grant gives SpaceX 180 days to adjust the minimum elevation angle from 25 to 10 degrees for Ku-band communications between Starlink satellites and U.S. earth stations north of 53 degrees latitude. The bureau said Wednesday those communications have to be on an unprotected basis and not cause harmful interference.
Our side-by-side comparison found no substantive changes between the 17 GHz order the FCC commissioners adopted Wednesday and the draft order that had been scheduled to be on Friday's monthly meeting agenda (see 2207150063). The order opens the band to geostationary orbit fixed satellite service downlinks and is paired with an NPRM seeking comment on also allowing non-geostationary orbit satellites similar access.