SpaceX's successful small satellite rideshare launch program limits launch startups' "latitude for making mistakes," Ill-Defined Space's John Holst blogged Friday. He said SpaceX's Starship heavy launch vehicle "will narrow that even more." And Chinese launch operators potentially could "be more devastating" than SpaceX on other smalllsat launchers, he said. Many startups are ignoring the value proposition SpaceX offers for launching smallsats cheaply.

Aerkomm plans to combine with special purpose acquisition company IX Acquisition Corp. to take Aerkomm public, the California satellite communications technology company said Friday. The combined business will be called Akom, it said. The transaction should close in Q3, pending approval of IX and Aerkomm shareholders, it said.

Telesat expects a "significant" revenue decline this year in its geostationary orbit business owing to cord-cutting and increased SpaceX competition, CEO Dan Goldberg said as the company announced Q4 2023 results Thursday. However, in a call with analysts, Goldberg said the company doesn't expect a similar decline in future fiscal years. He said Telesat anticipates video-related declines this year due to cord-cutting continuing to erode its direct-to-home service. Telesat also is seeing notable declines in its maritime connectivity business with customers increasingly seeking low earth orbit (LEO) service and many of them migrating to SpaceX's Starlink, he added. "If anything, the transition to LEO is happening a little faster than even we expected," Goldberg said, which validates Telesat's investment in its Lightspeed LEO constellation. The company said it posted revenue of roughly $520 million for 2023, and expects 2024 revenue of $402 million to $417 million. Goldberg said Telesat is hiring aggressively as it develops Lightspeed. The company ended 2023 with nearly 500 employees, with 35% of them working on Lightspeed, he said. Head count at 2024's end will near 740 with about half working on Lightspeed. The first Lightspeeds are to launch in June 2026, and offer full global coverage and service by the end of 2027, he said.

The FCC Space Bureau shot down SpaceX's request that its second-generation satellites operate in the 2 GHz, 1.6/2.4 GHz bands and 2020-2025 MHz band. In an order in Wednesday's Daily Digest, the bureau said the 1.6/2.4 GHz "Big" low earth orbit bands and 2 GHz band aren't available for additional mobile satellite system (MSS) operations and that the 2020-2025 MHz request didn't constitute a comprehensive proposal needed to sustain a satellite application. The bureau also dismissed as moot an EchoStar/Dish Network petition seeking dismissal of the modification application. SpaceX was seen facing an uphill battle to get 2 GHz and 1.6/2.4 GHz spectrum access (see 2402230027). In its order, the bureau said the FCC's "carefully rebalanced" band plan for the 1.6/2/4 GHz bands adopted in 2007 "does not envision an additional [code division multiple access] MSS system, much less a system of 7,500 space stations, operating in this band," as SpaceX proposed. It said opening up the 2 GHz band to additional operators requires first a rulemaking proceeding to determine if additional MSS systems should be authorized for operators in the bands. The bureau also put on public notice SpaceX's petition seeking revision of the agency's licensing and spectrum sharing framework for non-geostationary orbit MSS systems in the 1.6/2.4 GHz bands. Comments are due April 25, replies May 10, in RM-11975, according to the public notice in Daily Digest. It also put on public notice a separate SpaceX petition seeking revision of the 2 GHz MSS sharing plan. Comments there are also due April 25, replies May 10, in RM-11976, according to the PN. At a meeting this week with Space Bureau Chief Julie Kearney, EchoStar argued against SpaceX's 2 GHz petition, according to a filing Wednesday. "The mere action of seeking comment [on the petition] would provide it with undeserved credibility and threaten the certainty that has allowed EchoStar to innovate in this band leading to significant public interest benefits," the company said. EchoStar called it "well established that two widely deployed mobile services cannot share the same frequency band generally and for the 2 GHz band specifically."

SpaceX wants to go lower with its planned 7,500 second-generation satellites that would provide direct-to-device (D2D) service. In an application modification posted Monday, it asked the FCC Space Bureau to add 340-360 km orbital shells as a deployment option. It said those lower orbits "will come at a significant additional cost to SpaceX [but] enhance space sustainability by further reducing collision risk and passive decay time." It said the lower orbits also would make for better spectrum sharing. The D2D application seeks approval for operating at 525 km, 530 km and 535 km altitudes.

Eutelsat expects to put its Eutelsat 113 West B satellite into geostationary orbit in 2027, it told the FCC Space Bureau in a petition posted Wednesday seeking U.S. market access in the Ku, Ka, Q and V bands. The French- and Mexican-flagged satellite will provide fixed service and mobility applications in the Americas, Eutelsat said. The company said that while it has U.S. market access for the Eutelsat 113 West A satellite in the same orbital location, that market access grant is being surrendered.

In launching its Space Bureau last year, the FCC "worked hard to invite new entrants" into space, and that approach has seen some success, agency Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in prepared remarks during a Satellite Industry Association event Monday night. An example of that success was Intuitive Machines' lunar lander mission last month, with it being a first-time licensee receiving the FCC's first-ever lunar license, she said. Rosenworcel said the commission "will do everything in its power to make sure the United States continues to set the pace in space -- both for our economy and our national security." Also at the SIA event, ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin said the satellite industry "has a critical role to play" in closing the globe's digital divides and said the ITU "is here to support you as you take up this challenge." According to provided remarks, she said sustaining "the shared space environment — particularly the radio-frequency spectrum — has to be a top priority as we continue to push the limits of space innovation." In addition, she said the ITU is encouraging the satellite community to voluntarily share de-orbiting strategies and plans "to build awareness for safe physical coexistence in orbit."

Firefly Aerospace is aiming for a Sept. 19 launch of its Elytra-1 satellite, it told the FCC Space Bureau in an application posted Monday. The low earth orbit satellite will serve as a technology demonstration platform for as long as a year, transporting and deploying multiple customer payloads, it added. Firefly said the Elytra product line is targeting on-orbit mobility, logistics and hosted payload services.

The FCC approved an NPRM seeking comment on regulatory fees changes for space and earth stations due to the agency reorganization that replaced the International Bureau with the Space Bureau and the Office of International Affairs. The FCC “anticipated that the changes in the industry that resulted in the creation of the Space Bureau would likely also result in changes in the relative FTE [full-time equivalents] burdens between and among space and earth station fee payors,” the NPRM said. The item, released Wednesday, seeks comment on proposed changes to the allocation of fee burdens between geostationary orbit and non-geostationary orbit space stations, the creation of additional fee categories within the NGSO category, and on keeping the fee for small satellites at the same level as FY2023 going forward, with annual adjustments to reflect the percentage change in appropriation from the previous year. It also seeks comment on proposals assessing fees on all authorized space stations rather than just operational ones, increases to the fee for earth stations, and on an alternate method for assessing space regulatory fees. The alternative methodology “is a more comprehensive departure from the way that space station regulatory fees have been assessed since 1994” and would eliminate separate categories of regulatory fees for GSO and NGSO space stations, the NPRM said. Comments on the NPRM are due April 12, replies April 29.

The FCC should dismiss SpaceX’s “procedurally deficient” petition seeking greater access to the 2 GHz spectrum band (see 2402230027), EchoStar said in an opposition filing posted Wednesday. SpaceX’s petition calls for a rulemaking proceeding on whether sharing the 2 Ghz band is possible while going from the premise that it can’t share the band with EchoStar’s existing mobile satellite service and 5G mobile advanced wireless service, EchoStar said. The FCC “should not begin such a futile and self-defeating rulemaking proceeding and should dismiss immediately the petition without placing it out for public comment,” it said. Entities that seek to operate in a portion of the spectrum others use for existing services must show they can share the band without harmful interference into the existing service, the filing said. SpaceX “fails to even try to make such a showing, and “effectively admits the only way to deal with harmful interference from its 2 GHz entry would be for EchoStar to accept that interference,” EchoStar said. Even starting a rulemaking on the SpaceX petition would “imperil” innovation in the 2Ghz band, the filing said. The FCC “should consider the chilling message that commencing such a proceeding would send to licensees: the signal that such consequences are thinkable.” SpaceX didn't comment.