Viasat and Space42, a space tech company based in the United Arab Emirates, will form a joint venture, Equatys, which will be an infrastructure platform for direct-to-device and mobile satellite services, the companies said Monday. Equatys should be ready for commercial rollout within three years, they said, adding that it will operate and manage the 5G open architecture platform "as a neutral 'space tower' company providing ... space and ground infrastructure that licensed operators can share."

Amazon's Kuiper is pressing the FCC to revise its five-year deorbit rule for low earth orbit satellites. The current rule, which requires LEO operators to dispose of their satellites within five years of completing their missions, "imposes an artificial and rigid timeline that does not clearly and meaningfully increase space safety for diverse technologies and mission profiles," company representatives told FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz, according to a filing posted Monday (docket 25-133). Satellite operators can be unfairly penalized for a satellite failure beyond their control, Kuiper said. It urged the agency to instead require satellite operators to design and operate their systems to achieve post-mission disposal within five years under nominal conditions. "This approach would better account for the practical realities of the space environment while incentivizing safe satellite and constellation design and operation." The agency adopted the five-year deorbit rule in September 2022 (see 2209290017).

Globalstar is planning an additional satellite constellation for mobile satellite service, it said Monday. The company plans to bring into use its ITU filing for its HIBLEO-XL-1 satellite system. Under ITU rules, spectrum associated with a particular satellite filing has to be employed within a set number of years to prevent spectrum warehousing. The France-licensed HIBLEO-XL-1 "provides Globalstar with significant optionality as the Company grows as a major provider of connectivity in the global space economy," said CEO Paul Jacobs. HIBLEO-XL-1 is atop the company's C-3 constellation, announced in November (see 2411010003).

Non-geostationary orbit satellite operators' share of the commercial in-flight connectivity marketplace is set to rocket from 1% in 2024 to 63% in 2034, Novaspace said this week. It said that this year, NGSO networks will likely start replacing at scale older geostationary orbit systems using the Ku and Ka bands or air-to-ground systems.

Given increasing GPS signal jamming and spoofing against merchant ships, now might be the time to shift to quantum gravity measurement for navigation, Valour Consultancy blogged Wednesday. Quantum gravity readings provide better accuracy than GPS, but the technology isn't ready for large-scale production, Valour said. It predicted that it will likely be five or so years before commercially available quantum gravity navigation aids are available. However, global navigation satellite systems' vulnerabilities are "unacceptable for world trade, so alternative solutions are almost mandatory."

Eutelsat wants to raise $1.76 billion, which will affect its ownership and in turn require a transfer of its licenses, it told the FCC Space Bureau on Wednesday. In applications covering its OneWeb and Satelites Mexicanos subsidiaries that have U.S. market access, Eutelsat said the proposed fundraising transaction would see the French government increase its share of capital to 29.65%, up from 13.59%. It said other key shareholders will also participate, and the transaction will give France three board seats, compared with the one it has now. The additional financing will let Eutelsat accelerate its investment in existing low earth orbit projects and new initiatives, it said.

The budget cuts proposed for the Commerce Department's Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) are somewhat inexplicable because there's no one in the Trump administration or elsewhere pushing for them, space industry leadership said Wednesday on Aerospace Corp.'s Space Policy Show podcast. Commercial Space Federation President David Cavossa and Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup agreed that the proposed cuts are a head-scratcher, with Cavossa noting that DOD has remained steadfast that it doesn't want to resume responsibility for space situational awareness for commercial space operations -- a responsibility TraCSS was to take over. TraCSS' cost -- $50 million a year -- is tiny compared with what the Trump administration is putting into air traffic control, he said. The federation is "doing everything we can to get people to understand how important that air traffic control equivalent is in space and that we need to keep that moving forward.”

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the FCC will help the U.S. beat China in “Space Race 2.0” and praised SpaceX’s purchase of EchoStar’s AWS-4 spectrum in remarks Tuesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Aerospace Summit. “That deal is a potential game changer for the American consumer -- it promises to light up new spectrum and bring new sources of competition to the wireless and connectivity market.” The U.S. needs to deploy more satellites than China because the latter suppresses information, Carr said. “A world where [China] is providing internet access and controlling the access of information to billions across the globe would be less prosperous and more dangerous.”

SpaceX's consumer subscriber base will likely reach 8.2 million by year-end, with consumer revenue of $10.3 billion by 2026, Quilty Space said Tuesday. Quilty predicted that maritime installations will hit 130,000 by next year, and in-flight connectivity revenue will grow nearly tenfold due to "marquee airline deals ... and a steady installation cadence."

The ViaSat-3 Flight 2 satellite, which will more than double Viasat's bandwidth capacity, is scheduled to launch in the second half of October, the company said Thursday. United Launch Alliance is set to do the launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, it said. CEO Mark Dankberg said the F2 satellite "will significantly scale performance and number and density of users, and enable exciting new connectivity services alongside our in-flight entertainment and monetization business models." Viasat's F1 satellite, launched in 2023, developed antenna deployment problems that significantly reduced its capacity (see 2408050002).