SpaceX Lower Orbit Fight Not Likely to Be Resolved Soon
An FCC decision on how to handle SpaceX's pending license modification isn't near, as the agency seems to want to give some form of approval but is stuck on the question of whether the modification should be part of the 2020 non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite processing round, parties involved in the proceeding told us. Critics of SpaceX plans repeatedly said the license mod seeking OK for lower orbit for more than 2,800 SpaceX satellites (see 2004200003) should be handled in a different processing round than the constellation's approval. SpaceX and the FCC didn't comment.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
A lawyer for a party involved in the proceeding said the frequent advocacy before the FCC from all sides almost surely won't let up soon. As of Friday afternoon, the International Bureau docket had well more than 100 submissions, including 30 made in 2021.
The lawyer said the commissioners are struggling with wanting to approve SpaceX's application, but agency precedent doesn't seem to allow the company to do what it wants without it being handled in the second processing round. He said one FCC option is treating already-launched SpaceX satellites as being in the first processing round and having priority, with those launched under the modified license being in the subsequent round, but then the challenge for both the FCC and the company would be how to separately handle those two tranches of satellites operationally.
Commitments SpaceX made to the FCC (see 2102020002) -- accepting interference into its uplinks, not operating above 580 km once Amazon Kuiper has launched more than 1,800 of its own satellites into nearby orbit, and performing all the avoidance maneuvers for its polar satellites -- will likely be conditions on any approval, said another lawyer in the proceeding.
Amazon reps, in a meeting with aides to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, said treating the modification as a newly designed constellation and authorization as part of the second NGSO fixed satellite service processing round lets SpaceX move ahead immediately while ensuring Kuiper and other constellations don't face additional interference, in an International Bureau ex parte filing Thursday.
The bureau's January approval for 10 SpaceX satellites at the lower orbit (see 2101080062) missed the boat on SpaceX's "extraordinarily high failure rate," focusing just on the 10 satellites, and not on the 1,584 others authorized to operate at around 550 km, and assuming a failure rate that's probably low, Viasat said in a reconsideration petition Feb. 8. The risks of possible satellite failures go up as successive modifications have put SpaceX satellites at lower altitudes, it said.
SpaceX got support from potential customers. "Alaskans have been beat to death for years with high internet costs and low speeds," Jake Calderwood, 35, of Utqiagvik, formerly Barrow, told us. The elementary school teacher, who pays up to $400 a month for residential broadband, filed a letter in December urging FCC approval.