With More NGSO Applications on Deck, FCC Pace Called Reasonable as Pai Seeks Efficiency
With approval of four non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite applications on the agenda for Thursday's commissioner meeting (see 1810240030), the FCC is seen proceeding at a relatively good clip as it goes through Ku- and Ka-band constellation plans and now launches into V-band applications. "Our hope is to be able to approve [the remaining applications] with relative dispatch," Chairman Ajit Pai said in a brief interview after a Thursday event on the agency's space month (see 1811080034).
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Pai told us it hasn't been determined how the agency will handle the pending applications, assuming the four pass, and if the FCC will follow its pattern of doing approvals in batches periodically. Karousel was approved in August (see 1808160076), after O3b and Audacy in June (see 1806050057), SpaceX in April (see 1803300014), Space Norway and Telesat Canada in November 2017 (see 1711030063) and OneWeb in June 2017 (see 1706220039).
Satellite Industry Association members haven't asked the group to raise the issue of how fast the agency is going, so companies seem generally satisfied, emailed President Tom Stroup. Given the number and complexity of the applications, the FCC staff is doing a good job, though a company with a pending application is naturally going to want the process to go faster, he said.
The agency has been moving at a decent pace considering the NGSO processing round kicked off by OneWeb and then the V-band processing round also came with an NGSO regulations update rulemaking, said a satellite-company attorney. The lawyer said the agency also has been adopting the same conditions consistently across the applications, which provides consistency and sets some expectations for how such operations will be handled, though that won't be entirely clear until all have been granted. The expert said the V-band process likely will follow the same pattern set with the Ku- and Ka-band applications, approving batches every few months.
The FCC is moving quickly on applications consistent with the rules, said a satellite company outside counsel. The lawyer observed the agency wanting not to hold up progress of those constellations, but said it's moving much more slowly on applications seeking waivers or that seem inconsistent with regulations.
No one is pushing the FCC to go faster, and if someone did, the agency would likely point out that operators generally aren't ready for launch anyway, said a lawyer with an NGSO client. The pace seems acceptable for operators and the regulator, he said. The lawyer said the FCC is taking pains not to be a barrier, consistent with the approach under Pai of acting quickly on approval while also not abdicating its oversight role. An example is the SpaceX V-band draft order that conditions grant on the company presenting and the agency OK'ing a final orbital debris mitigation plan, he said. "The unprecedented number of satellites proposed" by SpaceX and others in the V-band processing round require it to do more assessment of the satellite reliability standards and of the deorbiting methods, says the draft.
The agency put an orbital debris condition on Kepler Communication's draft U.S. market access order, saying any satellites other than its 3U Cubesats would require an updated technical description or a demonstration it's "subject to ... effective regulation by Canada," as well as on Telesat's draft U.S. V-band market access order. The draft market access grant for LeoSat conditioned approval on the company finalizing its debris mitigation plan. LeoSat is considering disposing of its NGSOs by boosting them to a higher orbit, but "removal from orbit is preferable," the FCC says.
SpaceX points to debris issues with its International Bureau license application Thursday asking for lower orbits for part of its planned Ku- and Ka-band mega constellation already approved. It wants to move 1,600 planned satellites from a 1,150-kilometer orbit to 550 kilometers, and reduce the number of satellites to 1,584. That would make the total constellation size 4,409. It said the change would let it speed the deployment schedule, with the first launch in 2019, and simplify satellite design. That lower orbit cuts latency to as low as 15 milliseconds and puts space between SpaceX and OneWeb, Boeing and Telesat proposed constellations, all authorized to operate between 1,000 and 1,200 kilometers, SpaceX said. Iridium CEO Matt Desch tweeted that the lower altitude "would be very responsible" since satellite failures at the higher altitude "would have stayed up there a 1000+ years being debris creators."
The FCC space regime needs performance-based metrics that balance oversight with encouraging "a dynamic and forward-leaning space sector," SpaceX representatives told Pai, said a docket 18-313 posting Friday. The company said a clean orbital environment is one of its fundamental concerns.