BIU’s request for judicial review of an FCC Enforcement Bureau dismissal of satellite company Spectrum Five’s complaint against Intelsat (see 2306280034) is "incurably premature" because the petitioner first needs to ask the FCC to review that order, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel ordered last week (docket 23-1163) in a one-page decision. Deciding were Judges Karen Henderson, Cornelia Pillard and Florence Pan.
Xona Space Systems' proposed 258-satellite positioning, navigation and timing services constellation (see 2307120002) raises technical and policy issues that need addressing, such as criteria for approving satellite networks that use spectrum allocated for radionavigation satellite services (RNSS), given the precedent that would be established in this proceeding, GPS Innovation Alliance told the FCC Space Bureau last week. It was replying to Xona's opposition to GPSIA's petition to deny. In its opposition to the petition earlier this month, Xona said its system won't degrade or reduce spectrum availability for existing GPS operations or other U.S.-authorized RNSS operations, or foreclose future RNSS operations in the U.S. It said GPSIA's push for aggregate interference protection isn't backed by U.S. rules, precedent or policies. GPSIA in its reply said Xona should do testing with actual global navigation satellite system receivers. "This would provide assurance that unanticipated effects will not manifest themselves," it said.
Citing a growing bottleneck of launch services, Myriota wants to amend its pending U.S. market access petition to provide non-voice, non-geostationary mobile-satellite service in the 137-138 MHz and 148-150.05 MHz bands. In an FCC Space Bureau application Tuesday, it said the proposed changes would adjust the positioning of the 26 satellites to ensure deployment "despite the inflexible launch market."
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel listed a variety of space policy and regulatory activities the agency has taken in recent months, per prepared remarks in Wednesday's Daily Digest. Those include streamlining the processing of satellite and earth station applications, identifying frequencies in the 2 GHz band for use for commercial space launches and exploring ways of fostering in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing, she said during an address at Silicon Valley Space Week.
Clashes among nations in the future "will include galactic arenas," and there should be a networked approach when there's a cyberattack on a commercial space operator, said Anjana Rajan, White House assistant national cyber director, Tuesday at a Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center conference. She said there's a need to understand space systems are secured by design and to operationalize best practices for defense against cyberattacks, and, to those ends, her office, the National Security Council and National Space Council are working on an interagency policy. Multiple speakers said space should be declared a critical infrastructure sector. “It should have been done yesterday,” said Samuel Visner, Aerospace Corp. fellow. As space and cybersystems become more interdependent, space will be increasingly sensitive to cyber concerns, he said, and there should be a national R&D initiative for space cybersecurity. Adding functional requirements on operations for security comes at a cost, and that R&D initiative could make cybersecurity more affordable and practical, he said. Being able to anticipate adverse cyber conditions in space means having more space-based sensors and contextual telemetry, said Kassandra Vogel, Blue Origin principal space systems security architect. Withstanding a cyber event is going to require incident response exercises and solutions that inform playbooks that then allow rapid decisions, she said.
Blue Origin is getting into the in-space refueling and logistics marketplace, as it unveiled its Blue Ring spacecraft platform Monday. “Blue Ring addresses two of the most difficult challenges in spaceflight today: growing space infrastructure and increasing mobility on-orbit,” said Paul Ebertz, senior vice president of Blue Origin's new In-Space Systems business unit.
Amazon's Kuiper prototype satellites launched earlier this month (see 2310110007) "are stable in orbit ... and communicating across all links from Earth to space and space to Earth," the company said Monday. It said commercial-scale satellite production will start by year end, with the first to be launched in the first half of 2024 and beta testing with early commercial customers in the second half.
The FCC Space Bureau signed off on SpaceX's request to deploy V-band payloads on its second-generation Starlink satellites rather than put up a separate V-band constellation (see 2303230007), the bureau said in a partial grant last week.
The Satellite Industry Association echoed concerns the Aerospace Industries Association raised about pending activity to designate outer space as one of the nation's critical infrastructures (see 2309280011). In a letter last week to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, SIA included AIA language about how such a designation could result in a "resource risk" for federal agencies and the space industry and that it also could grease the path to additional space industry regulation.
The malfunctioning ViaSat-3 satellite (see 2307130003) won't need to be replaced, but the company expects to recover less than 10% of its planned throughput, Viasat said Thursday. It said the next two ViaSat-3 satellites, ground network mitigation and third-party bandwidth commitments, along with that limited capacity, should cover current and future mobility customer needs. Viasat said it has $420 million in insurance coverage on the satellite and will make a claim before year's end. It said it also will finalize a claim before year's end for the malfunction of its Inmarsat-6 F2 satellite (see 230825000). It said it has $348 million in insurance coverage for that one.