The FCC Space Bureau approved Viasat's request to move Sunday's launch and operation milestone for its ViaSat-3 satellite serving the U.S. to the end of May (see 2303270004), per a Space Bureau public notice Friday.
A federal court again rejected a class-action suit claiming insider trading of Intelsat stock before the public found out the FCC wouldn't allow a private auction of the satellite company's C-band spectrum. In an order Wednesday granting the defendants' motions to dismiss (docket 4:20-cv-02341), U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White for the Northern District of California said the amended complaint surmises that Intelsat management must have updated then-Chairman David McGlade, one of the defendants, but doesn't include any information about specific communications around the time he made his stock sales. White said the amended complaint had no new allegations about defendant Silver Lake Group, and expanded allegations about defendant BC Partners still aren't sufficient to state a claim. He said with the latest amended complaint being the third iteration, "any further amendments would be futile," and ordered it dismissed with prejudice. The suit alleged McGlade and major Intelsat shareholders sold big blocks of their holdings after learning about the C-band auction decision.
SpaceX seeks a blanket license for Ka-band earth stations that will each communicate simultaneously with up to eight of its first-generation satellites and up to 32 of its second-gen satellites, it told the FCC Space Bureau Wednesday. SpaceX said the earth stations would transmit in the 28.35-29.1 GHz and 29.5- 30.0 GHz bands and receive in the 17.8-18.6 GHz and 18.8-19.3 GHz bands. It said it already is licensed to operate more than 60 gateways using that spectrum, but the blanket license would give it more "flexibility to deploy earth stations where and as needed [and] relieve the burden on the Commission of processing SpaceX Services’ earth station applications."
The Wednesday launch of Viasat's ViaSat-3 Americas satellite from the Kennedy Space Center was rescheduled for Thursday night, the company said.
Iceye's proposed multi-satellite system (see 2304050002) will share altitudes with SpaceX satellites, so before its application is processed, the company should clarify aspects of its orbital debris mitigation plan that could affect SpaceX operations, SpaceX told the FCC Space Bureau this week. Those clarifications should include that Iceye will maintain station-keeping and active collision avoidance until its satellites are safely below in-use spacecraft, SpaceX said. Grant of Iceye's application should carry the same conditions as SpaceX's second-generation constellation, including the filing of semi-annual reports on collision avoidance maneuvers and satellite disposal and use of a performance-based method for assessing disposal failures, it said. Iceye didn't comment Wednesday. SpaceX has repeatedly urged other satellite systems be subject to similar conditions as its second-gen system (see 2301180049).
AST SpaceMobile said its successful two-way voice calls to unmodified smartphones using its BlueWalker 3 satellite were the first-ever direct voice connection from space using everyday cellular devices. It said Tuesday the call was made from Midland, Texas, to Japan over AT&T spectrum using a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone.
Citing Spectrum Five's withdrawal of its 2020 petition seeking revocation of the Intelsat 30 and Intelsat 31 licenses (see 2304130048), the FCC Enforcement Bureau ordered the petition be dismissed with prejudice, per Tuesday's Daily Digest.
Astroscale signed a loan agreement of about $22 million from Japan's Mizuho Bank, the satellite servicing company said Tuesday. It said the funding will support current and future projects and accelerate its business development efforts. The loan agreement "provides Astroscale with greater financial flexibility to achieve our objective of establishing routine on-orbit services,” said CEO Nobu Okada. The company cut the ribbon on the Denver headquarters of its U.S. operations Monday.
Hughes reached a coordination agreement with SpaceX to ensure operations of its Jupiter 3 high-throughput satellite in the 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6- 29.1 GHz bands won't interfere with SpaceX, Hughes said in an FCC Space Bureau filing Tuesday. It said the coordination agreement also covers Jupiter 1 and 2 operations. Hughes said both companies have operated their satellite networks in the 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6-29.1 GHz bands with no report of any harmful interference, and the coordination agreement should reasonably extend to any additional SpaceX non-geostationary orbit operations in the bands.
Ligado plans to launch direct-to-device commercial services with Viasat this year using the Skylo Technologies platform, Ligado said Tuesday in docket 11-109. It said the services will target market segments including consumer smartphone, automotive, and defense applications. It said it also is working with Omnispace on longer-term development of global coverage by combining their L- and S-band mobile satellite service spectrum for direct-to-device voice, text and data connectivity. The Ligado-Viasat-Skylo partnership was announced in March (see 2303020023).