SpaceX's development approach for its Starship heavy launch rocket "looks nothing like other rockets," with the company rapidly turning out copies now rather than starting with a prototype and then scaling production, Quilty Space wrote in a note to subscribers Friday. That could let it avoid the production strain that often slows development, "easily doubling the normative cadence of new rockets, if not more," it said. That could make founder Elon Musk's vision of daily launches more feasible, though the risk is that a serial technical flaw would affect multiple rockets, it said.

The FCC Space Bureau signed off on DirecTV's request to extend the authorized mission life of its T10 satellite to February 2027 (see 2208150001), according to a bureau grant this week.

The first launch in Iceye's second tranche of earth exploration satellite service satellites is now scheduled in November instead of October (see 2304050002), it said in an FCC Space Bureau filing Thursday, the last day of November. It said the remaining seven of the second tranche are expected to be launched in March 2024, June 2024, June 2026 and October 2025.

Pointing to active satellite deployments in the 70/80 GHz band and the spectrum's potential for 6G backhaul via satellite, SpaceX urged the FCC that 70/80 GHz modernization accommodate satellite systems alongside other co-primary services. In a docket 20-133 filing Thursday, it recapped a meeting with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office and FCC Space and Wireless bureau staff at which it pushed for a 70/80 GHz band framework that includes satellite Earth stations in its light-licensing and link registration process.

The idea of holding states liable for damages that stem from launch missions they host is being tested by evolving space capabilities, such as launches not just from land but the high seas or aircraft, Gerardine Goh Escolar, National University of Singapore adjunct law professor, said Wednesday during a U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs conference. She said there also are questions around legal liability arising from in-orbit transfers of property, such as a satellite launched by one country and then effectively owned and operated in orbit by another. Some nations have criticized the idea of imposing liability on a state that allowed its territory to be used for a launch when what was launched is under the control of another state, she said. And some nations have interpreted the Outer Space Treaty and the liability convention to exclude the liability of a launching state when a private space activity or private space actor is involved, but that’s contrary to the wider interpretation taken by the U.N. General Assembly, Goh Escolar said. Liability is restricted to damage caused by a space object, and there is fuzziness around the idea of what constitutes a space object, she said. It's not strictly defined in U.N. texts, but is understood to implicitly mean items with physical properties, including launch vehicles and components of launchers that never enter space, she said. Objects without such physical properties, like electromagnetic waves, are excluded. That limits liability to physical damage caused by, for example, a falling rocket. Yet liability doesn’t extend to service interruption, she added. Goh Escolar said debate continues on whether orbital debris is within the definition of a space object. Given the rapidly growing numbers of objects in orbit, it's going to be difficult to attribute fault when it comes to damage caused by a debris field, Goh Escolar said. She said an international space situational awareness framework could help tackle legal and policy questions, including liability for damages.

Pointing to its submission of multiple pages of link budgets at a variety of power flux-density levels, SpaceX waved off Omnispace's criticisms that it dodged FCC Space Bureau questions about proposed supplemental coverage from space service (see 2311200029). In a docket 23-135 filing Monday, SpaceX said Omnispace was "attempt[ing] to bog down staff, waste Commission resources, and ultimately delay approval of a new service." It called Omnispace's requests for interference studies in regions outside the U.S. a delay tactic. "Omnispace’s tired scorched-earth campaign makes clear that no amount of information will be enough," SpaceX said. Omnispace didn't comment.

Some in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing spectrum needs can be met in the near term with current spectrum allocations and through existing and planned commercial services, but other types of access might involve changes to U.S. and international spectrum allocations and radio service definitions, NTIA said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 22-271. Different ISAM operations are going to have various spectrum needs, and those will need to be addressed as ISAM capabilities start to mature, it said. An easy option for now is that ISAM missions servicing fixed satellite service or mobile satellite service satellites can use the same spectrum used by the client satellite, it said. NTIA said that while the space research service spectrum allocation could support early demonstration programs, the earth exploration satellite service allocation definition doesn't fit ISAM operations.

Space startup Xona Space Systems anticipates the first launch of its planned 258-satellite radionavigation satellite service (RNSS) (see 2307120002) in Q4 2024, company representatives told an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr, according to an FCC Space Bureau filing this week. Xona said the initial phase of 34 satellites should be in orbit by mid 2026, with its constellation fully populated by mid 2028. Xona said its system won't cause harmful interference to other U.S.-authorized RNSS operators. It said while there are no prescribed interference protection criteria for RNSS-to-RNSS interference, coordination among operators would determine necessary safeguards.

SpaceX's answers to the FCC's Space Bureau about proposed supplemental coverage from space service (see 2311150022) don't answer some bureau questions, such as not providing an interference analysis for operations in the 1990-1995 and 1910-1915 MHz bands, Omnispace said Monday in docket 23-135. And rather than a monte-carlo simulation regarding interference expected to be seen by other operators, SpaceX conducted a "barebones analysis" focusing on a single Omnispace satellite even though there will likely be other global, S-band, non-geostationary orbit, mobile satellite system operators in the future, Omnispace said. SpaceX recapped a meeting with Space and Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering & Technology staff at which it discussed its answers and urged the agency "not to allow the false, shape-shifting claims of speculative foreign systems to deprive American consumers of the real and potentially life-saving benefits of supplemental coverage from space."

Intelsat, SES, Hispasat, Eutelsat and Ovzon met with representatives of the FCC Wireless and Space bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology to reiterate their arguments for lifting restrictions on satellite use of the upper 12 GHz band rather than its reallocation to mobile broadband (see 2308100048), according to a filing Friday in docket 20-443.