Spectrum between 7 GHz and 24 GHz currently allocated to satellite service is heavily used, and demand for services is increasing, and there's little additional satellite spectrum allocation, the Global Satellite Operators Association said Tuesday. Added to that pressure is that a number of World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 agenda items "seek to bring additional applications to existing satellite-allocated spectrum," GSOA said. The satellite industry's continued use of the 7-24 GHz bands "will bring large-scale benefits to economies and society as a whole," it said.
As part of its eventual goal of a "superhighway" between the Earth and the moon featuring third-party services such as spacecraft space situational awareness, edge computing and communications, Quantum Space wants to launch and operate one Sentry non-geostationary orbit cubesat. In an FCC Space Bureau application Friday, Quantum said the Sentry NGSO would do space-based optical observations and be used for training personnel on satellite integration, data collection and operations. It said it hopes to launch Sentry on SpaceX's February 2024 Transporter-10 mission.
EchoStar's Jupiter 3, intended to supplement the company's satellite-delivered broadband connectivity in the U.S. and Latin America, successfully launched Saturday, the company said. It said the geosynchronous orbit satellite will bring more than 500 Gbps of additional capacity to the Jupiter fleet and should enable download speeds of up to 100 Mbps in some markets.
A draft order about making spectrum available in the 2025-2110 MHz band on a secondary basis for space launches is circulating among FCC commissioners, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office said Friday. “These rules will ensure commercial space launches have the necessary spectrum resources for reliable communications no matter their mission [and] promote economic strength, safety, competitiveness, and innovation," she said. The draft order also would expand the spectrum available for commercial space operations on a secondary basis in the 2200-2290 MHz band from four channels to the entire band, and amend the 399.9-400.05 MHz band allocation to allow deployment of federal satellites, her office said.
Broadband connectivity and mobile supplemental coverage from space should drive demand for satellite-delivered telecom services to be a $124.6 billion annual business by 2030, ABI Research said Wednesday. It said the satellite/mobile segment alone could have up to 200 million connections by 2031 with a market value of $18 billion.
Commercial space operators need to consider the ethical and fiduciary issues of how having the DOD as a customer could make them targets in a space conflict, Even Rogers, CEO of space intelligence startup True Anomaly, said Wednesday on a Hudson Institute panel. The Russia-Ukraine war highlighted how commercial operators become targets when they support DOD, and they easily could be targeted before DOD or intelligence community space assets since it's unclear if the U.S. would defend commercial providers in space, he said. Redwire Executive Vice President-National Security Space Dean Bellamy said artificial stovepipes in space traffic management, like DOD vs. Commerce, are breaking down as the agencies are working better among themselves, with commercial operators and allies. He said that increased collaboration between Commerce and the Space Force resulted in better space traffic management and safety in space.
HawkEye 360, with its constellation licensed to operate from 500 km to 615 km, asked the FCC Space Bureau to amend that operational altitude to 400 km-615 km, extending its operation capabilities as their orbits decay. In an application Monday, the company said its Cluster 4 satellites are operating at an orbital altitude of about 477 km due to propulsion system failures and increased solar activity.
Activations of the Iridium-enabled Android emergency messaging service via Qualcomm's Snapdragon Satellite platform likely won't come until 2024, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said Tuesday as the company announced its Q2 earnings. The Iridium service has done its qualification work with Qualcomm, but there's integration work to be done by smartphone makers, he said. The Iridium service will start with emergency SOS service, then expand to real-time messaging, and the Apple/Globalstar service likely will do the same, he said. He said the company sees notable opportunities in L-band services such as connectivity services for small aircraft, helicopters and drones.
New Viasat withdrew subsidiary Inmarsat's 2021 petition seeking U.S. market access for its planned V-band Orchestra constellation (see 2111030008), it said Tuesday in docket 22-153.
Existing power flux density restrictions in the 17.8-18.3 GHz will address concerns fixed service (FS) operators have about allocating the 17 GHz band to fixed satellite service, representatives of Amazon's Kuiper told FCC Space Bureau staffers per a docket 20-330 filing Friday. Non-geostationary orbit FSS already has 17 GHz band access in Europe and Africa and interference-avoidance measures used in adjacent bands should do the same in the 17 GHz band and allow NGSO FSS operators to coexist with other authorized users in the band, they said. Amazon said FS operations in the 17.7-17.8 GHz band will be less likely to get interference than in the adjacent 17.8-18.3 GHz band because the 17 GHz band is less used by FS. It said its own dynamic interference simulations show aggregate interference to FS system receive antennas being well below ITU recommendations.