By 2035, someone might be killed or injured every other year by falling debris from SpaceX's Starlink satellites, the FAA said last week in a congressionally mandated study of the reentry risks posed by low earth orbit (LEO) megaconstellations. The FAA said that estimate comes from projections of Starlink's constellation growth size, and the 28,000 fragments expected to survive reentry each year. "If SpaceX is correct in reporting zero surviving debris ... the rise in reentry risk is minimal over the current risk," it said. The report focused on Starlink because of an Aerospace Corp. technical study indicating more than 85% of the expected risk to people on the ground and aviation in 2035 is projected to come from that particularly large constellation, the agency said. To have regulatory oversight of LEO reentry issues, the agency could pursue a rulemaking to amend its payload review process, the study said. But the FAA wouldn't go that route if the FCC or Commerce started regulating debris impacts from reentering satellite constellations, it said. The FAA said its regulatory reach is also limited since its authority doesn't cover payloads launched outside the U.S. by noncitizens or entities not organized in the U.S.

Comments are due Dec. 26 on an FAA NPRM proposing that upper stages of commercial launch rockets be removed from orbit within 25 years after launch, said a notice in the Federal Register last week. The FAA proposal would cover anything larger than 5 mm. It's proposing a requirement that removal be within 30 days of the mission's completion if disposal is by controlled disposal or by a move to a disposal orbit or Earth-escape orbit; within five years if disposal is by retrieval; or within 25 years if using atmospheric uncontrolled disposal or natural decay.

The FCC should set a 90-day deadline for the C-band relocation payment clearinghouse to process claims that come on or after Jan. 1, SES representatives told Wireless, Space, Public Safety and Homeland Security bureau and Office of General Counsel representatives, said a filing Thursday in docket 18-122. SES said the amount of reimbursement claims processing to be done by the clearinghouse is sizable. Of the 1,311 claims SES submitted, 103 have been processed. Of those 103, the average time to reimbursement has been 323 days, with some being paid after 680 days, it said. Given that backlog, it's premature to set final deadlines for the reimbursement process, SES said. The clearinghouse has been reviewing C-band claims "for years, and it should have the experience and resources to process claims efficiently," it said.

Addressing orbital debris risks would involve all satellite operators sharing and regularly updating ephemerides, reasonable covariance, contact information and maneuverability status on Space-Track.org, SpaceX representatives told FCC Space Bureau staffers, said a docket 18-313 filing Thursday. SpaceX said operators also should share maneuvering capability on satellites operating near and above inhabited space stations. And it argued using an aggregate collision probability metric "would inject significant uncertainty and bias into the Commission’s orbital debris mitigation rules that would harm responsible, U.S.-licensed systems."

Satellite operator Skylo Technologies signed a partnership agreement with German telco O2 Telefonica for provision of hybrid satellite/terrestrial IoT coverage, Skylo said Wednesday. It said commercial launch of the hybrid connectivity will be in the coming months.

Spire Global wants to launch three non-geostationary orbit satellites, Hubble 1, 2 and 3, each carrying a payload for customer Hubble Network as part of Hubble's plans for a low-Earth orbit small satellite constellation serving Bluetooth devices. In an FCC Space Bureau application last week, it said the first two Hubbles are slated for February 2024 launch on SpaceX's Transporter-10 mission, with the third expected to launch in June 2024 on Transporter-11.

Kuiper's opposition to OneWeb's reconsideration petition on the FCC"s non-geostationary orbit spectrum sharing order doesn't address the order's unequal treatment of NGSO operators on the effective reduction in the sunset period for some, OneWeb told the FCC Monday in docket 21-456. Amazon's Kuiper, in its opposition earlier this month, said the OneWeb recon petition relies on arguments the FCC already considered and rejected or that OneWeb could have presented earlier in the proceeding but didn't. OneWeb in its reply said it did raise those concerns in the record, but the FCC order just focuses on issues about the general appropriateness of the sunset and Kuiper "stays in that lane too."

Elon Musk’s claim SpaceX’s fundamental mission is to get humanity to Mars isn’t just rhetoric, Musk biographer Walter Isaacson said Tuesday at an Economic Club of Washington event. “I think he truly believes that mission -- he’s mission driven,” Isaacson said. Once Musk has a mission, he backfills around it, such as using SpaceX to also make money via internet connectivity from low earth orbit, said Isaacson, professor of American History and Values at Tulane University, and formerly CNN chairman and Aspen Institute CEO. “That’s just a way to fund the mission,” he said. Asked about when SpaceX might go public, Isaacson said the SpaceX CEO “hates taking things public. I think he has zero desire to take SpaceX public.”

Oral argument is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Nov. 20 before a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel in the consolidated International Dark-Sky Association and Dish Network challenges to the FCC's partial approval of SpaceX's second-generation satellite constellation (see 2304170005), per a clerk's order Monday (dockets 22-1337, 23-1001).

Rocket Lab's Tuesday Electron rocket mission failed, according to the company. The vehicle was carrying a synthetic aperture radar satellite for earth observation company Capella Space. Rocket Lab postponed its next scheduled launch. "We are deeply sorry to our partners Capella Space for the loss of the mission," Rocket Lab said. It said it's working with the FAA and other agencies to investigate the cause of the mission failure.