The FCC should add co-primary space-to-space allocations for intersatellite service (ISS) in the 18 GHz band, NASA and NTIA recommended in a report last week. NASA and NTIA said the FCC also should adopt a Table of Allocations footnote to ensure that space-to-space links in the band for federal systems are limited to communications with a nonfederal network for space relay purposes. The 2023 national spectrum strategy identified 18.1-18.6 GHz as one of five spectrum bands NTIA should study for potential repurposing (see 2311130007). In their report, NASA and NTIA said that with NASA not building additional tracking and data relay satellites, new ISS allocations in the band will provide regulatory certainty that would support the development of commercial services to meet NASA's space-to-space links needs in the future.

Parties interested in being the space launch frequency coordinator for the FCC's space launch service must divulge any interest they have in FCC licenses, including through subsidiaries or affiliates, said a Wireless Bureau notice for Friday's Federal Register. The bureau announced the mechanism and criteria for frequency coordinator selection, saying applicants must show they can get technical data from licensees and maintain a database of transmitter locations and operational parameters. They also must show knowledge of or experience with wireless telemetry and with space launch and aerospace transmissions. In a separate notice announcing the licensing and coordinating procedures for the space launch service, the bureau said space launch service licensees will have to register the fixed, base, itinerant and mobile stations needed for a launch in the FCC's universal licensing system under its nationwide, nonexclusive license. Launch service licensees can choose up to 5 MHz of their own bandwidth and can request more if they can show why it's needed.

Spire Global has signed an agreement with Myriota to design, build and operate 16 satellites carrying Myriota payloads for the IoT provider, Spire said Wednesday. The payloads would complement Spire's existing satellites that run Myriota network software for the Myriota IoT platform, Spire said.

EchoStar's Hughes subsidiary has reached Jupiter 3 coordination agreements with SpaceX and other non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite operators, but talks with Amazon about its Kuiper constellation continue, EchoStar told the FCC Space Bureau in a filing posted Tuesday. The coordination agreements -- to ensure that Jupiter 3 operations at 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6-29.1 GHz don't cause harmful interference -- were a condition of the approval of the satellite, which launched in 2023. EchoStar said it has met with Kuiper and the FCC on multiple occasions in coordination discussions. With the coordination agreement to be reached at least 60 days before launch of the NGSO system, EchoStar said it was submitting to the FCC its interference protection plan for Kuiper operations at 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6-29.1 GHz. The inaugural batch of Kuiper's satellites intended for commercial broadband service launched Monday and "were operating as expected in low earth orbit," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote Tuesday on X.

Aiming to limit its constellation's effect on ground-based astronomy, AST SpaceMobile announced Monday that it signed a coordination agreement with the National Science Foundation to work with it and the astronomy community. AST said the mitigation steps promised under the agreement come from recommendations of the International Astronomical Union’s Dark and Quiet Skies initiative, such as reducing satellite brightness and providing real-time satellite positioning data to observatories.

Ligado's planned cooperation with AST SpaceMobile is unlawful and would practically guarantee that Ligado can't satisfy its obligations to Inmarsat, the latter company told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in an objection Friday (docket 25-10006). Ligado has said its arrangement with AST is key to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring (see 2501060026). In its objection, Inmarsat said the deal has Ligado assigning some rights and economic benefits to AST, but Inmarsat's cooperation agreement with Ligado prohibits assigning any of its rights or delegating any obligations without Inmarsat's consent. Bankruptcy law similarly doesn't allow a partial assignment of rights or obligations, it said. Inmarsat has also asked the bankruptcy court to force Ligado to reinstate quarterly payments related to L-band spectrum use as part of Ligado's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding (see 2503040028).

Opening up BEAD to greater participation by low earth orbit (LEO) satellites under the auspices of being more technology-neutral "is really a billion-dollar handout" to SpaceX's Starlink, Penn State Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications Christopher Ali wrote Friday. "Subsidizing a technology that offers only 'good enough' connectivity ... risks creating a new digital divide as parts of the country go to satellite while others move to fiber optics," he added. Starlink is "a viable option for some," particularly for certain rural residents. But it shouldn't receive federal funding when its speeds don't meet minimum standards, it has high upfront costs, and it largely operates as a monopoly in the LEO market, Ali wrote.

While Amazon's Kuiper satellite constellation is the subject of reports that it's facing significant delays, precedent suggests those hurdles are normal and should get resolved as momentum builds, Quilty Space analyst Caleb Henry wrote Wednesday. In their first year, SpaceX's Starlink and Eutelsat's OneWeb fell short of the number of batch launches they had targeted, he said. Given how much Amazon has put into Kuiper -- an estimated $16.5 billion-$20 billion -- the FCC is likely to extend Kuiper's license, he added. The inaugural commercial launch of Kuiper satellites is slated for Monday (see 2504220002).

EchoStar's application for review of the out-of-band emissions (OOBE) limit waiver granted to SpaceX (see 2504080029) makes a "fact-free argument" and overlooks the FCC Space and Wireless bureaus' rationale, SpaceX said Wednesday (docket 23-135). SpaceX said the waiver, for its supplemental coverage from space operations in the PCS G block, was based on technical evidence in the record, but EchoStar never submitted any technical analysis of its own. EchoStar’s insistence that the FCC setting an OOBE limit precludes a waiver in appropriate circumstances would do away with the waiver rule itself, SpaceX said. The company also recapped conditions put on the waiver to protect adjacent-band terrestrial networks.

The first commercial launch of Amazon Kuiper satellites is now scheduled for April 28, the company said Monday. An April 9 launch of the batch of 27 satellites (see 2504020044) was postponed.