The FCC approved transfer to NavSight of Spire Global's satellite license and U.S. market access grant and its earth station authorizations, per an International Bureau grant Wednesday. The transfer is part of Spire combining with the special purpose acquisition company, announced in March (see 2103310001).

SES wants to reserve its rights to any claims against Intelsat or its affiliates, regardless of any Intelsat-signed documents or agreements for C-band clearing, it told the FCC in a docket 18-122 post Thursday. SES said it and Intelsat have "been working cooperatively" on the transition, but reserving rights in the record would keep any legal fight between the two from interfering with the move. Intelsat didn't comment. SES' $1.8 billion claim against Intelsat due to the collapse of the C-Band Alliance is pending in U.S. Bankruptcy Court (see 2007140029).

Kepler Communications received $60 million in Series B financing, to be used toward building out its low earth orbit satellite communications and broadband network with the introduction of second-generation satellites, it said Wednesday: Tribe Capital led the fundraising round, which brings the total raised by Kepler to date to $90 million.

Comments are due July 12, replies Aug. 9, in docket 13-115 on allocating the 420-430 MHz, 2025-2110 MHz, and 5650-5925 MHz bands for the commercial space launch industry, says Thursday's Federal Register. The FCC seeks input on establishing service rules. The Further NPRM was adopted 4-0 in April (see 2104220036).

SpaceX asked for blanket license for operation of the next generation of its earth stations, in an International Bureau application Tuesday. The FCC earlier approved a blanket license for SpaceX's operation of up to 1 million current generation end-user earth stations. SpaceX said the new terminals use a slightly smaller antenna. It said the stations will transmit in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band and receive in 10.7-12.7 GHz. It said some parts of the downlink band are shared with other commercial and government services, and the stations wouldn't transmit in there and thus won't interfere.

Airline broadband connectivity via geostationary orbit (GSO) satellite is on its way out, with low earth orbit (LEO) constellations likely to claim most if not all that market by decade's end, satellite executives said Wednesday during the annual Connected Aviation Intelligence Summit. OneWeb Vice President-Mobility Ben Griffin said many airlines he has spoken with in the past year are "positively anxious" about LEO and its promised capacity, coverage and low latency benefits over GSO. Vice President-Starlink and Commercial Sales Jonathan Hofeller said SpaceX similarly is in talks with several airlines and has its own aviation service in development. He said the company has done some demos and plans to get it finalized for aircraft deployment "in the very near future." Griffin said aviation is "a fairly risk-averse" industry and won't adopt LEO connectivity quickly, as it waits instead to see that networks and constellations are established with a level of credibility. He said LEO connectivity deals likely will start ramping up in the back half of the decade. Hofeller said by the end of the decade, a good number of GSO satellites in orbit will be decommissioned and it's unclear if all will be replaced. He said within 10 years, LEO will be the norm for inflight connectivity. Hofeller said SpaceX has spent considerable time trying to estimate what bandwidth will be needed to serve a particular flight. He said one challenge is that usage will change over time, since usage now on airlines reflects the relatively meager service that's available. Telesat Director-Commercial and Product Development Manik Vinnakota said flights get perhaps 10 to 30 Mbps downlink service, while 50-100 Mbps could easily be needed, and perhaps more for widebody jets. He said links to aircraft also will get more symmetrical as people increasingly send as well as download files. Uplinks of 30-40 Mbps might be needed, he said.

Citing its plans to offer a variety of IoT services throughout the U.S., Hiber seeks a blanket license to deploy and operate up to 500,000 Hiber Edge mobile earth station user terminals, said an FCC international Bureau application Monday. It said the terminals will use leased capacity on Inmarsat's satellite network. It said the mobile earth stations will communicate with Inmarsat's geostationary satellite network using 1626.5-1660.5 MHz uplinks and 1525-1559 MHz downlinks.

Astranis Space Technologies seeks U.S. market access for its in-development Arcturus satellite, which will begin providing Ka-band broadband service to Alaska and western Canada starting in 2022, per an FCC International Bureau application Monday. It said the Bermuda-flagged satellite is being done in partnership with Pacific Dataport, which will be exclusive distributor of Arcturus broadband capacity and services.

Hughes and SES/O3b petitions for reconsideration of SpaceX's license modification granted in April (see 2105280001) recycle arguments the FCC already rejected, said SpaceX in a consolidated opposition Monday. Hughes lacks standing, SpaceX told the International Bureau. It said the petitions don't cite any flaws in the order and "just catalogue SES/O3b’s and Hughes’ disagreements with the Commission’s conclusions." Petitioners didn't comment Tuesday.

Intelsat argues it can operate its Intelsat 30 and 31 satellites on combinations of ITU filings without informing the FCC, but it acted differently when seeking FCC authorizations for other satellites by including ITU filing information in operational specifications of the license applications, Spectrum Five said in a docket 20-399 filing Monday. It said Intelsat gave no explanation for its supposed changes in understanding FCC and ITU rules between getting FCC authorization to use foreign and ITU filings for some, but not for 30 and 31. It said Intelsat's argument it doesn't need U.S. market access approval for the 30 and 31 transponders, which use a New Guinea filing to broadcast in the U.S., can't be reconciled with its conduct in other licensing proceedings and is incorrect. Spectrum Five seeks revocation of the Intelsat 30 and 31 satellite licenses (see 2012010057). Intelsat didn't comment.