FCC Efforts at Cheaper Smallsat Regulation Expected to Bear Fruit
FCC efforts at cutting costs of small-satellite licensing should help reverse the trend of U.S. operators going elsewhere to seek licensing, Alliance of Commercial, Cube Experimental and Small Satellites Director Tony Azzarelli told us Wednesday at Satellite 2020. He and others said on a panel that smallsat regulation is failing to keep up with market changes. Organizers ended the event a day early, on Wednesday and citing COVID-19 (see 2003110036).
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Former Ofcom head-space and sciences services Azzarelli told us the U.K. used to attract numerous U.S. companies' satellite registrations because of being far cheaper, plus lack of processing rounds rules being driven by engineers rather than lawyers. "The U.S. has not been very competitive," he said. Now the FCC "is changing in a good way," he said. The agency approved smallsat licensing procedures, with a cheaper licensing fee option, in July (see 1907250023). The commission didn't comment.
Infostellar Director-Regulatory Affairs Andy Fry said many regulatory bodies are looking at a more light-touch approach. He said the rules and approval processes still are geared for yearslong satellite missions, not short-duration ones. AB5 Consulting founder Betty Bonnardel-Azzarelli said regulators need to evaluate applications more based on the risk involved instead of focusing on issues like the technology.
Updated NOAA earth observation satellite regulations should be released within a couple of months, said Director-Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs Tahara Dawkins. She said the rules likely will include requiring NOAA re-examine rules every two years; the last time such review was 2003. Fry said all space regulators should look at their rules every two to three years, instead of 10-15 years. Azzarelli said market growth should be a trigger for a regulator to look at its regime.
Regulatory experts said there's a need for more commonality and international harmonization of non-geostationary orbit rules. Dawkins said rather than less regulation, there's a broad need for more specific, focused mandates. Bonnardel-Azzarelli said a problem is landing rights, especially for short-duration smallsat missions, because getting the approvals often can take longer than the mission itself. Fry said many regulators are still too slow, working under the seven- or 10-year cycles that geostationary orbit missions can take from conception to launch, while non-geostationary ones might come together in months.
A challenge with regulating smallsats is defining them, speakers said. Bonnardel-Azzarelli said the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference tried to develop a definition, but ran into a problem with systems that didn't fit into the ideas being discussed regarding mission duration or orbits. Dawkins said it's a "dangerous" definition to make because policy is lagging so far behind the industry and could result in unworkable rules or guidelines.