Issues of spectrum sharing with thousands of other planned V-band satellites, plus increased demand for high-throughput connectivity services, drove Boeing to seek to modify its V-band non-geostationary orbit system authorization, company officials told FCC International Bureau Chief Tom Sullivan per an ex parte post Tuesday. It said a hybrid low earth/medium earth orbit system allows optimal service delivery and is enabled by new multi-beam terminals. A day after Boeing's 147-satellite constellation got FCC OK in November (see 2111030051), the company asked for approval to add 119 MEO and 5,670 LEO satellites.

Launch services provider Spaceflight seeks FCC approval for launch and operation of one of its Sherpa orbital transfer vehicles. In an International Bureau application Tuesday, it said its SpaceX-launched Sherpa-AC1 would operate in orbit for up to a year, deploying satellites and hosting payloads from NearSpace Launch and Xona.

Amazon Kuiper's requested extension of the pleadings deadline in the pending authorization of SpaceX's second-generation constellation (see 2201110006) is "sadly predictable" and part of a "strategy of obstruction," SpaceX told the FCC International Bureau Tuesday in an opposition. With the application filed in May 2020 and a minor amendment in August 2021, Amazon has "had more than enough time to develop its comments fully and would have no need for an extension," SpaceX said.

Intelsat and Thales/Leonardo joint venture Thales Alena agreed to build two software-defined satellites to be used in Intelsat's 5G software-defined network, Intelsat said Wednesday. Intelsat 41 and Intelsat 44 are scheduled to be in service in 2025. Saturday, Airbus announced it will deliver Intelsat two software-defined satellites in 2023.

Amazon seeks a 30-day extension of the deadline to file pleadings in the pending authorization of SpaceX's second-generation constellation, which the FCC accepted for filing last month. "Evaluating a constellation of this unprecedented scale will involve complex and novel issues," it told the FCC International Bureau in a filing Monday. SpaceX didn't comment Tuesday.

Amazon is asserting its ability to coordinate its planned 3,236-satellite Kuiper constellation (see 2007310057) with other systems when it repeatedly demands the FCC put mandates on other systems, SpaceX told the International Bureau in a filing Monday. It said the agency should get clarification from Amazon why it "should be judged by a different set of rules than it has demanded be applied to others." It said Amazon is being inconsistent about such criteria for judging collision risks from other constellations. Amazon didn't comment Tuesday.

Space robotics company Astrobotic Technology is seeking FCC OK for its Peregrine 1 mission to send government and commercial science payloads to the moon's surface. In an International Bureau application Friday, Astrobotic said the Peregrine will go up on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket, and then separate from the rocket's upper stage for an elliptical loop around the Earth.

SpaceX, which had floated two possible configurations of its second-generation Starlink constellation at the FCC (see 2108260002), settled on one, it told the International Bureau Friday. It said it has launched more than 1,900 first-gen satellites and is continuing to launch more, with the second-gen system to complement and augment that first-gen system. It said it will continue to maintain the first-gen satellite system and launching replacements, even as it conducts initial deployments of the second-gen system. It said Starlink customer user terminals will be able to get service from satellites of either system. It said it intends to start launching second-gen satellites as early as March, pending regulatory approval. The expected in-orbit lifetime of a fully functional second-gen satellite will be five to seven years, it said. SpaceX said it filed for ITU approval through Germany for 37,756 E-band satellites and for 3,360 Ku- and Ka-band satellites.

Some orbital altitudes are becoming increasingly dangerous because of growing amounts of orbital debris, Darren McKnight, senior technical fellow for orbital debris monitoring company LeoLabs, said Thursday in a University of Washington webinar. He said 780 km to 850 km is becoming a hotbed of debris generated by the U.S., China and Russia. He said 1400 km is also becoming problematic, compounded by atmospheric drag helping clear lower altitudes over time, but at 1400 km "it's there for centuries." The U.S. is "woefully behind the rest of the world" on the need for active debris remediation, with French, Japanese and European space agencies "way ahead," he said. "It's been seen as something we can worry about decades later. We need to worry about it now." Mega constellations "are really the victim" rather than the causes of increasing orbital debris concerns, McKnight said. He said operators like SpaceX and OneWeb are "operating very responsibly" and going beyond government regulatory requirements, though they still will likely face difficulties because of debris from old payloads and rocket bodies. Russia's anti-satellite missile demonstration in November (see 2111160063) raised the likelihood of a collision in some orbits by a factor of two, generating 500 to 2,000 trackable pieces of debris and probably ten times that in untraceable debris, he said. Technology has changed notably since 1997, when the 25-year guideline that's now become an international norm was established, he said. Electric propulsion systems would accommodate requiring satellites be deorbited one or five years after end of mission, though no nations have gone that route, he said. He said along with technical solutions to remediate debris, more preemptive efforts are needed to prevent debris generation, such as increased information sharing by satellite operators and inter-government trust.

Low earth orbit (LEO) satellite operators "absolutely" must target fixed data and mobility markets such as aeronautics, maritime and rail simultaneously, given the highly localized supply-demand dynamics that come with such constellations, Northern Sky Research said in a white paper Thursday. It said those LEO supply-demand imbalances and the challenges of avoiding interference will unquestionably result in LEO-geostationary and LEO-medium earth orbit configurations, "via either private-level coordination, provider partnerships, mergers and acquisitions or all."