Medium earth orbit space relay network startup SpaceLink joined the Satellite Industry Association, SIA said Tuesday.
Lynk Global's fifth satellite in its planned "cell towers in space" constellation was deployed into low earth orbit and is beginning operations, the company said Tuesday. Lynk said it plans to provide global commercial service in 2022, pending FCC approval and implementation of agreements with mobile network operators. It said it plans other launches for later this year and next.
GCI signed a $150 million deal with Intelsat to acquire more C-, Ka- and Ku-band capacity for satellite-based communications services across Alaska, GCI said Monday. GCI CEO Ron Duncan said the deal will nearly quadruple the company's geostationary satellite capacity. GCI said it has also been in talks with low earth orbit satellite operators including SpaceX, OneWeb and Telesat.
Intelsat dropped the Gogo branding from the commercial aviation connectivity business it bought in December (see 2012010026), said the company Tuesday. Gogo sold Intelsat the business for $400 million to focus on business aviation connectivity.
Engineers for the Integrity of Broadcast Auxiliary Services Spectrum said it supports co-primary status for space launch use of 2025-2110 MHz only if those uplinks are subject to the same frequency coordination criteria DOD uses for its 2 GHz uplinks, in FCC docket 13-115 comments Monday. It said that protection criteria are achievable and justified since that's what DOD adheres to and since it's longstanding FCC policy that a newcomer spectrum user protect incumbents.
FCC approval of SpaceX's license modification (see 2104260077) should have addressed geostationary orbit interference concerns about SpaceX’s multiple ITU filings and its equivalent power flux density compliance, Hughes officials told an aide to FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and International Bureau staffers, per a filing Friday. SpaceX doesn't dispute its ITU filings could be misused to avoid EPFD compliance, Hughes said, urging the agency to require on reconsideration that SpaceX put in an ITU finding that explicitly says the joint effects of multiple ITU filings associated with its constellation was taken into account for verifying EPFD compliance and confirm that EPFD data files given to requesting parties reflect the operations of its complete system. SpaceX didn't comment Monday.
Earth imaging satellite operator Planet Labs plans to combine with special purpose acquisition company dMY Technology to become publicly traded with an equity value of roughly $2.8 billion, Planet said Wednesday. It said along with the dMY transaction, investors including a variety of BlackRock funds and Google are investing $200 million in dMY. The combined companies will have the $200 million and $345 million in dMY's trust account to expand into existing and new markets and build more software and machine-learning-enabled data products and services. Planet said the deal is expected to close later this year. It said Planet's current management, including the co-founders, CEO Will Marshall and Chief Strategy Officer Robbie Schingler, will continue to lead the public company.
Citing a request by space launch companies for a longer comment and reply deadline on possible dedicated spectrum allocations for commercial space launches (see 2106300038), the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology delayed the docket 13-115 deadline by 30 days. Comments now are due Aug. 11, replies Sept. 10, per Wednesday's order.
SpaceX satellites did 2,219 collision avoidance maneuvers between Dec. 1 and May 31, and in five instances other satellite operators told SpaceX they would prefer to maneuver, the company told the FCC international Bureau in a semiannual status report Friday. SpaceX said its maneuver threshold -- 1 in 100,000 chance of collision -- is a "magnitude more sensitive than the industry standard" of 1 in 10,000.
Eutelsat and Telesat said their parts in the C-band transition are largely complete, in quarterly transition reports Thursday in docket 18-122. Eutelsat said 39 of the 48 incumbent earth station antennas it serves have been transitioned, though additional antenna systems might be added. It said services migration above 4 GHz is 90% complete and all 48 antennas should be complete by August. Telesat said filters have been installed on all earth stations that didn't elect to opt out of the satellite operator handling the transition. It said it anticipates completing the transition in August