Lower Orbits Increasingly Sought-After, Viasat CEO Says

Space industry fundraising is more difficult than it was a year ago, with funding rounds taking longer to close, McKinsey & Co. partner Brooke Stokes told the conference. But that has to be put in context with 2022 being the second-largest year ever in terms of capital raised by the space industry. She said stock prices for space-related special-purpose acquisition companies are down sizably, but as a group they're not out of line with other market or technology segments.

There's a movement to bar non-propulsive satellites in lower orbits, but a small satellite without propulsive capabilities is less a collision or orbital debris threat than a larger one with those capabilities, and that effort has failed, Dankberg said in his keynote. He said Viasat is "very interested" in narrowband direct-to-device opportunities.

The carrying capacity of particular orbits is an increasingly pressing question, and there needs to be consensus on the answer, Dankberg said. That means common access to the catalogs of objects in space and common views of what are the correct break-up and dispersion models to get those answers, he said.

The FCC, which had been blasé about the total mass of a constellation, seems to be increasingly concerned about this, Dankberg said. That comes as the size of smallsats is growing, with 150 to 250 kg being common three to four years ago but the second-generation SpaceX Starlinks 10 times that, he said.

Don't expect a lot of new spectrum being made available quickly or easily for non-geostationary orbit operations, conference panelists said. Getting new bands allocated is a several-year process and NGSO/geostationary sharing is far easier, said satellite lawyer George John of Hogan Lovells. The L band is a likely sharing opportunity, with only a couple of operators using it now, he said. The S band also will inevitably be looked at, said spectrum and satellite consultant Tim Farrar.

After several years of focus on the Ka, Ku and V bands, there's more attention to lower frequency bands for use in the direct-to-device market, Farrar said. Spectrum for those services will be a challenge because it's harder to share in those lower frequencies involving omni-directional antennas, he said. He said some operators will likely focus on "trying to have the best of both worlds" of their own spectrum plus use of mobile network operator spectrum.

FCC Satellite Division Chief Karl Kensinger said there are some areas of consensus in the open NGSO sharing proceeding, so activity there "could be expected." He said the agency is working on multiple requests for experimental or commercial use of frequencies employed by terrestrial mobile networks, but that's a realm where such uses weren't contemplated with FCC rules were crafted so "careful consideration" is needed.

Panelists debated the efficacy of the FCC's processing round regime and whether there are viable alternatives. Processing rounds worked well when they involved just a couple of players, such as with the S band, Farrar said. But when a handful or more are seeking access to a band, "you really hope they don't all survive" or spectrum sharing could be a particular problem, he said. Olin College of Engineering assistant professor Whitney Lohmeyer said the processing round system gives priority and certainty, but it can also create "this massive scurry" for systems that haven't fully designed their networks.

Optimal Satcom CEO Ahsun Murad said more intersatellite communications will be needed over the next 10 years to handle such applications as edge computing. He said certain spectrum bands such as V and W aren't good for ground-to-space communications but could be useful for intersatellite uses.