SES urged tweaks to the FCC Space Bureau application streamlining draft order on the agency's September agenda. In a docket 22-411 filing Monday, it recapped a meeting with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at which SES suggested changes to language about granting points of communications under a streamlined procedure. It also said language in the accompanying Further NPRM asking about certain satellite operators changing antenna parameters without prior authorization would benefit from examples of what types of operators such a provision would imply.

As the FCC looks at duplicative coordination requirements in its space application processing Further NPRM on the September agenda, one opportunity is the requirement that satellite licensees using certain bands coordinate with federal users each earth station with which they plan to communicate, Microsoft representatives told an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Space Bureau staffers, per a docket 22-411 filing Friday.

Astroscale is urging the FCC to initiate an in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing NPRM as a step toward creation of ISAM licensing and technical rules. In a docket 22-271 filing Friday, it recapped a meeting with Space Bureau Chief Julie Kearney in which it also urged the agency to specify spectrum allocations that in-space servicing satellites could use for communications and to craft an "appropriately-limited" annual regulatory fee for in-space servicing satellites.

Adopting shot clocks for satellite and earth station applications would promote satellite competition and innovation while providing certainty to operators, SpaceX representatives told aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Nathan Simington, per a docket 22-411 filing Tuesday. Pointing to the space application processing draft order on circulation for September's meeting (see 2308310059), SpaceXers also urged the agency to seek comment on further changes to the unbuilt system rule and to improve the processes in the new Section 25.117(i) for adding a non-geostationary orbit satellite system as a point of communication to an earth station authorization.

Intelsat and optical networking company Aalyria have signed a memorandum of understanding about partnering on optical uplinks and downlinks, the satellite operator said Tuesday. Intelsat Chief Technology Officer Bruno Fromont said the collaboration "will enable enhanced mobile broadband connections and represents another step forward towards our Next Generation Unifying Network vision enabled by software-defined networking, 5G and multi-orbit operations."

Telesat has contracted with SpaceX for 14 Falcon 9 launches for Telesat's Lightspeed low earth orbit constellation, the two said Monday. Each will carry up to 18 Lightspeed satellites to LEO, they said. The launches will start in 2025, with Lightspeed to begin providing global service in 2027, they said.

Before SpaceX resumes launches of its Starship Super Heavy rocket at its Boca Chica, Texas, launch site, the company must take 63 corrective actions, the FAA said Friday, announcing it concluded its investigation into the rocket's April explosion during testing. The agency said SpaceX also must get a license modification that addresses safety and environmental requirements before another Starship launch. CEO Elon Musk posted on X, formerly Twitter, last week that Starship was "ready to launch" and awaiting FAA approval.

Appropriate values for measuring long- and short-term interference thresholds are sorely needed, satellite operators said in docked 21-456 reply comments posted Wednesday. There continued to be disagreements about the use of band splitting once interference protections sunset (see 2308080051). The replies were for the non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) Further NPRM adopted in April (see 2304200039). Given the general industry consensus on such issues as assessing short-term interference based on absolute change in link availability rather than a relative change in unavailability, the agency's next step should be getting input and technical analysis to determine objective link availability and degraded throughput values, SpaceX said. Compatibility demonstrations should be needed only if coordination discussions fail to result in an agreement, O3b said. It urged the agency to require compatibility analysis across various latitudes and consider different rain conditions to prevent cherry-picking of locations that could distort interference calculations. The record shows support for opting for an absolute decrease in unavailability metric for short-term interference, but there's no consensus on the appropriate values for the long- and short-term interference thresholds, Intelsat said. It said there's no persuasive justification for the commission to adopt an aggregate interference cap or a post-sunset interference protection regime beyond what already is in its rules. Telesat also urged more study before determining a short-term standard for unavailability. It said the agency "should avoid falling into the trap" of delaying operations of a later-round applicant's system when there's no coordination agreement, particularly when an earlier-round applicant hasn't fully engaged in coordination efforts. Noting support in the record for ensuring operators of poorly designed systems aren't inadvertently rewarded, Viasat said the agency can push efficient spectrum use by taking another look at its band-splitting mechanism, as that incentivizes deployment of systems using spectrum inefficiently. Turning to band splitting after the sunset of interference protections could mean service disruptions, said OneWeb. NGSO systems that aren't fully deployed by the sunset date shouldn't be allowed to operate under default spectrum splitting procedures at least until they have completed deployment, it said. Supporting band splitting, Amazon's Kuiper said the prospect of this equal status promotes coordination. Backing a degraded throughput methodology, Mangata said the FCC should allow operators to use publicly available data such as in their applications but not require the analysis be based on information coming from the coordination process. That analysis should account for only deployed satellites, with there being an option to submit an analysis looking at future deployments of earlier-round systems or a new showing once there has been deployment of that earlier round, it said.

Spectrum Five CEO David Wilson's claims about its dropping a complaint against Intelsat (see 2308310024) dodge lender BIU's central points, BIU said Wednesday in docket 20-399. He doesn't explain what BIU's power of attorney agreement with SF conveys, it said, saying "if it does not convey the right to protect BIU’s investment, it is useless." BIU said the rights in question are its "only collateral for economic interests worth hundreds of millions of dollars" and Wilson's equity in SF "is subsidiary to the holders of debt in BIU." "Most telling of all" is that Wilson doesn't explain why he withdrew the Intelsat petition, it said. Wilson didn't comment. SF's 2020 complaint said it had senior priority rights to operate at 95 degrees west, but the two Intelsat satellites there were using power levels twice as high as ITU allows (see 2012010057).

Space startups and entrepreneurs often are unaware of the regulations and requirements pertinent to their businesses, like export control, or that the regulatory process can be expensive, said Aegis Space Law lawyer Bailey Reichelt Wednesday at an Association of Commercial Space Professionals event. The seminar went over basics of space law regulation, such as relevant agencies and legislation, plus the processes, such as recommendations for particular staffers to contact at FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Space consultant Caryn Schenewerk said the FAA is facing a resource challenge, with insufficient staffing to handle all the applications. She said it also could use improved processes, and a ticket system where an applicant can see where it is in the queue and get feedback. She said one FAA staffing challenge is that it's in a hiring battle with the private sector since there's strong demand by commercial space companies.