Viasat's NEPA Strategy Aimed at Slowing Competitor, SpaceX Says
Viasat's "feigned interest in environmental protection" is an effort to slow FCC processes, since it ignored other non-geostationary orbit systems for a singular focus on SpaceX, that company said in an International Bureau response Thursday to Viasat seeking a National…
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Environmental Policy Act review of a pending license modification (see 2012230003). SpaceX said modification will improve the environmental and safety footprint of its constellation. Viasat "cannot simply rewrite environmental regulations to suit its current arguments," and the FCC categorically exempted from NEPA review most agency actions, it said. "SpaceX engages in legal gymnastics in a failed attempt to distract from what a wide variety of third parties recently have made clear," Viasat said. "Starlink poses environmental risks that have not fully been examined by the FCC (or any other agency) -- risks to our atmosphere, to a dark and quiet sky, and to our continued use of space. We welcome a science-based analysis of these issues, before SpaceX is permitted to deploy another 2,800 satellites into the skies." Amazon, speaking with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington, said the pending modification will greatly increase interference to and from its Kuiper system in uplinks and downlinks, and SpaceX's redesigned system should be included in the non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) processing round initiated in March 2020. Separately, Amazon said doing so would ensure SpaceX coordinates with other NGSO systems in that processing round. It said SpaceX hasn't addressed claims it may have launched hundreds of satellites with gateway antennas inconsistent with its license, and said SpaceX should clarify the antenna redesign requested in the pending modification, plus the performance and design parameters of the gateway antennas on its currently operational satellites. SpaceX didn't comment Friday.