Move the Transportation Department's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) out of FAA oversight, the National Space Society said Wednesday, endorsing a Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee recommendation. Elevating AST in DOT hierarchy "would address concerns that it currently does not receive the resources and priority it needs to regulate a rapidly growing and increasingly complex space launch industry," NSS said.

The growing pace of space launches is prompting more conversations between the U.S. and other countries about space objects' state of register, Ryan Guglietta, lead foreign affairs officer at the State Department's Office of Space Affairs, said Thursday during an FCC Space Bureau-hosted workshop about U.S. interagency payload reviews. Establishing a payload's registering state is becoming increasingly complex, Guglietta said. For example, a payload could be built in one nation, assembled in another and have other multinational touchpoints. He said the U.S. is trying to create a shared understanding with other nations of what constitutes a payload's registering state. The FAA spearheads the Interagency payload review, and Stacey Zee, FAA operations support branch manager, said if one agency raises a concern during that review, then the agency aims to resolve it early in the process. Sabrina Jawed, FAA commercial space law team manager, said in a worst-case scenario -- there's no payload approval, even though the payload has been integrated into the launch vehicle and is ready to go -- "we have the authority to say 'hold up.' However, we do not want to do that." Space Bureau Special Counsel Karl Kensinger said integrating a payload into a launch vehicle marks a critical point, and it's tough to move backward from there. The satellite operator must have a license by then or face "significant risks," he said.

SpaceX's Qatar Airways in-flight connectivity deal announced last fall marks a tipping point for the satellite broadband operator, as it's SpaceX's largest airline partner thus far, Analysys Mason analyst Kerry Vincent-Viry said Tuesday in a podcast. She said other airlines will likely pay attention to Qatar's feedback on the deal. Airlines don't change in-flight connectivity providers quickly, so Starlink's next deals probably will come with airlines that currently lack providers, she said. Airlines' in-flight connectivity contracts formerly lasted some 10 years. That time period is shrinking as airlines anticipate the arrival of non-geostationary orbit players like Starlink.

With the record showing non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service systems can coexist in the 17 GHz band with incumbents, there's no reason to delay allowing NGSO FSS services in the band, according to Amazon's Kuiper. In a meeting with FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez's office, recapped Wednesday in docket 20-330, Kuiper representatives also urged that the FCC implement its NGSO FSS spectrum-sharing framework.

The FCC plans to update its orbital debris mitigation docket, its Space Bureau said in a docket 18-313 public notice Thursday. It said it especially wanted comments about whether to analyze collision risks for non-geostationary orbit systems aggregately or per satellite, and about the use of U.S. Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices’ probability of collision metric as a threshold or safe harbor as a means of identifying systems that may need further review. In addition, it said it was seeking updated input evaluating the likelihood of individual satellite maneuvering failures within a multisatellite system.

Between Intelsat's end-user direct relationships and its OneWeb low earth orbit (LEO) partnership and SES' geostationary and medium earth orbit (MEO) assets, SES' proposed $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat (see 2404300048) gives it more mobility competition options, Valour Consultancy Senior Analyst David Whelan emailed us Wednesday. The high level of synergy between SES and Intelsat makes the deal unsurprising, Whelan said. "It creates a new entity with multi-orbit capabilities and a vendor that becomes a one-stop-shop for Ku- or Ka-band solutions," he said. The deal gives SES direct access to aviation customers -- something it had little of outside of government, he said. SES will likely not want to disrupt the status quo in terms of Intelsat’s current customer base and will look to augment Ku-band service with its own satellites, he said. Between SES' Skala service, its O3b MEO constellation and Intelsat's Flex, New SES will be supplying connectivity to more than 12,000 maritime vessels globally, "so already a strong player," he said. The deal might not help it much in landing new customers, as LEO-only is increasingly the preferred option, he said.

Mega constellation operators are pushing back on an FCC proposal that would charge more regulatory fees for big non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellations. Docket 24-85 reply comments this week also saw numerous calls for imposing fees on authorized systems that aren't yet operational and for phasing in any big fee hikes. The FCC in March adopted an NPRM on regulatory fee changes for satellite and earth stations due to the agency reorganization that created the Space Bureau, with initial comments received last month (see 2404150040). Amazon's Kuiper said the agency should reject proposals such as putting a particularly big share of NGSO fees' burden on large constellations that are not backed by full-time equivalent (FTE) staff allocations. SpaceX said the relative activity in licensing dockets isn't a reasonable proxy for apportioning fees. As a result, the agency shouldn't impose higher fees on NGSO mega constellations based on the number of filings in those NGSO licensing dockets. Increased fees would reward obstructionist competitors gaming the comment system, SpaceX said. FCC records show the largest NGSO constellations are responsible for a disproportionate share of the regulatory burden, Telesat said. It said the record shows substantial support for allocating a share of at least 30% of aggregate Space Bureau regulatory fees to earth station regulation. Phase in any new or hiked Space Bureau regulatory fees over years to ease the financial burden, NCTA said. It said the FCC should stick to its calculations for how many FTEs work on earth station matters, rather than considering unsubstantiated arguments for shifting more of the Space Bureau's regulatory fee burden onto earth station operators. It said no one has offered an argument for putting regulatory fees on receive-only earth stations, and thus the agency shouldn't do so. Eutelsat/OneWeb called "reasonable" the proposed 60/40 allocation between geostationary and NGSO systems, respectively. Also backing tiers of NGSO regulatory fees based on constellation size, it said larger constellations "raise additional issues that require more FTE time," such as orbital debris and larger earth station networks. EchoStar and DirecTV also backed the NGSO subcategories based on constellation size and assessing fees on authorized but not yet operational systems, as did SES/O3b, which also urged a several-year phase-in of fee increases due to the Space Bureau's creation. Viasat also urged that NGSOs cover a greater allocation of satellite fees and backed the NGSO subcategories. The $400,000 annual regulatory fee that small non-voice, non-geostationary mobile satellite systems are facing under the FCC proposal is "unsustainable" and make operating NVNG MSS systems in the U.S. a challenge, Myriota said. NVNG MSS systems consume fewer FCC resources than other small NGSO constellations, it added.

May 29 is the deadline for nominating people to serve on the Advisory Committee on Excellence in Space, NOAA said in a notice in Monday's Federal Register. The agency said committee members will "evaluate economic, technological, and institutional developments relating to nongovernmental space activities and submit advice and recommendations on promising new ideas and approaches for Federal policies and programs."

SpaceX wants V-band capabilities on some of its lower-orbiting second-generation Starlink satellites. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Wednesday, the company asked for authority to include V-band payloads on its second-generation satellites orbiting at 340-360 km. The agency last year approved V-band payloads on second-generation Starlinks operating at 525-535 km (see 2310160053). SpaceX said the FCC giving it more V-band deployment options would augment its broadband service capabilities using V-band frequencies. It said it can share V-band frequencies with other non-geostationary orbit systems and conventional geostationary orbit satellites and terrestrial networks at 300 km without becoming a significant interference threat.

EchoStar is giving fair warning about SpaceX's experimental license request to do supplemental coverage from space (SCS) operations testing in Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand. In an informal objection Monday with the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, EchoStar said the application doesn't refer to coordinating with potentially affected operators. Moreover, it doesn't propose many of the conditions that are standard for similar experimental licenses or those from the FCC's February SCS order. EchoStar listed a set of suggested conditions for all SCS licensees, including specific out-of-band emission limits and mandatory coordination with potentially affected operators before commencing. In its special temporary authority request, SpaceX said it hopes to start testing on May 1 and continue until it receives commercial authority to deliver SCS from the FCC and relevant local administrations. It said beyond Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand, testing markets could include Chile, Peru and Switzerland, where it also has SCS partnerships.