The FCC provided guidance to commercial space launch applicants and...

in a statement (http://bit.ly/16xSwaK). For launch applicants obtaining experimental authorizations for communications used for launch activities and related cargo transport activities, they must provide information like an overview of the proposed launch or testing, a 24-hour contact for interference issues and “technical information including frequency, power, emission, latitude and longitude coordinates of the launch site or test operations,” the commission said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/ZNNcuH). An experimental authorization is required for a commercial space launch vehicle “that will use radio frequencies during a launch,” it said. A separate authorization is needed for radio frequency use by a satellite launched into space by the launch vehicle and another authorization is required “to operate a ground station that will communicate with the commercial space launch vehicle or spacecraft.” The guidance on small satellites focuses on such satellites in the amateur and research communities, the commission said in a separate public notice (http://bit.ly/WtiUys). For permitted amateur satellite operations, a licensed amateur operator must submit a pre-launch notification no later than 30 days after the date of launch vehicle determination, “but no later than 90 days before integration of the space station into the launch vehicle,” it said. Experimental licenses are granted for either two or five years and operation of an amateur radio service satellite “is authorized only so long as the operator’s amateur license remains current,” it added.