Orbital and Spectrum Stockpiling a Challenge for Satellite Startups: Panel
New satellite entrants struggle in the face of incumbent operators taking up geostationary orbital slots with old satellites that barely operate anymore, said Kimberly Baum, regulatory head for Astranis, at a space and spectrum conference Tuesday at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder. The related challenge of mini payloads on satellites that don't provide commercial service -- but nonetheless get licensed -- can stifle spectrum access for new entrants, she said. She called for the FCC to look at changing how it licenses payloads or older satellites that can't provide commercial services.
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NTIA acting Administrator Adam Cassady said the agency will launch an inquiry on how to better coordinate with federal agencies that have a role in commercial space. The delays that commercial space operators sometimes face when seeking to use federal spectrum can drive them to leave the U.S. or seek a flag of convenience elsewhere, he told the conference, which was hosted by the law school’s Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship.
The U.S. "must remain the global leader in space," Cassady said, warning that China-led international consensus on space norms would mean greater orbital debris woes, among other issues. Maintaining that dominance comes at least in part from "predictable, reliable and efficient" spectrum access for commercial space operators, especially early-stage ones. NTIA needs to do better in spectrum coordination with other federal agencies so commercial space operators aren't left hanging for months, he said.
Cassady said the coordination inquiry fits into broader modernization efforts at the agency, such as AI-powered frequency assignments. NTIA is also trying to address spectrum coordination process snafus, such as commercial operators' emails about pre-coordination not being seen due to staffing issues.
Thomas Dombrowsky, T-Mobile's vice president of engineering and technology policy, predicted "a lot of fireworks" at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27) over agenda item 1.13, which involves new spectrum allocations for direct-to-device services. "It will be heavily argued." T-Mobile announced Monday that its D2D service in partnership with SpaceX will start commercial service July 23 (see 2506240005). Asked about interference from D2D operations, Dombrowsky said T-Mobile and SpaceX are using 1910-1915 MHz paired with 1990-1995 MHz, and Mexico has no licensees operating there. There are Canadian licensees in that spectrum, but T-Mobile has engineered the service in a way that backs off from the border, he added.
There might be a need to privatize some FCC mobile and satellite monitoring and enforcement functions, given the reduced resources that the government is experiencing, Dombrowsky noted, citing the success of privatizing other functions, such as equipment certification. He said the FCC can be too conservative in decisions, and the relative lack of interference complaints after an FCC decision reflects the agency having "belt-and-suspendersed it so tightly." But given the spectrum scarcity, Dombrowsky said, "you need to sort of push the envelope a little bit on that in order to actually get more use out of the spectrum."
The idea of equitable space access for non-spacefaring nations also came up more than once during the conference. Astranis' Baum said there's tension between WRC-27 agenda items facilitating new non-geostationary orbit systems and those motivated by concern about big global satellite systems built largely by U.S. interests.
Irresponsible activity in space can blow back on those bad operators, Wiley space lawyer Jillian Quigley said, pointing to instances when the International Space Station had to do maneuvers to avoid space debris from Russian anti-satellite testing. Logos Space Services CEO Milo Medin said satellite operators are most in jeopardy if one of their satellites goes awry. “We are the ones really focused on making sure we don't mess up our own orbits.”
Asked about radio astronomy losing access to spectrum, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said it's a perennial issue -- and one without easy fixes. NASA is increasingly looking to use lasers instead of RF spectrum for astronomy, recognizing that spectrum is increasingly congested, she said. Radio astronomy issues will come up more at the FCC as satcom and the agency eye higher frequencies, she added.
Gomez also said she was alarmed about the cuts to federal science-related workforces, noting that the FCC is losing substantial amounts of institutional memory after early retirements. The agency's loss of engineering expertise is a challenge, because such jobs are hard to fill, and engineering staff is “easiest to poach by industry.”