A consortium of investors made a nonbinding cash offer of $7.21 per share for Inmarsat, the satellite operator said Tuesday. The investors are Apax Partners, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Warburg Pincus, it said. Under British mergers and acquisition law, the consortium has until April 16 to announce a firm intention to make an offer. Inmarsat made similar disclosures last year about possible interest from Eutelsat (see 1806250053) and EchoStar (see 1806110035).

The world needs to move toward a central controlling authority, probably under U.N. auspices, that collects and verifies observations of objects in space and issues warnings about possible collisions, said the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) in a docket 18-313 posting Monday. Until then, the FCC can use its orbital debris NPRM (see 1811150028) to assume that authority role in the U.S. until a longer-term solution is found, it said. It said for objects in orbit, an operator should have to advise a central controlling authority about debris put in orbit as a result of its activities and about any change in the satellite's status. ASE said operators should have to notify the central authority six months before retirement or de-orbit. It said the FCC and U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space should host a conference to form a list of actions needed internationally to address space traffic management and orbital debris issues. ASE is an international group of astronauts and cosmonauts.

A $1.25 billion fundraising round means OneWeb now has the rest of the money needed for its 650-satellite broadband satellite constellation to go active by 2021, a spokesperson said Monday. OneWeb said the new funding round was led by SoftBank, Grupo Salinas, Qualcomm and the Rwandan government. It said it makes the satellite service "inevitable." OneWeb CEO Greg Wyler tweeted the money "keeps us on track to achieve our mission as our Florida satellite facility moves into full production." OneWeb said starting in Q4, it expects to begin monthly launches of more than 30 satellites at a time. The first six satellites of the constellation were launched last month (see 1902280007).

Planning to launch its Global-4 satellite in May, BlackSky Global asked for FCC International Bureau OK to modify its license covering that and three other satellites. In a bureau application Thursday, BlackSky said it wants to change the license to reflect a change in Global-4's propulsion system and its injection altitude, plus a change in launch vehicle and associated initial deployment parameters for its Global-3 satellite. Two other satellites in its constellation covered by its existing license are in orbit and operational, the earth imaging company said.

Using an injection altitude of 350 kilometers means any of its satellites that fail to operate on deployment will fall back to earth and burn up in two weeks to eight months, SpaceX told the FCC in an International Bureau posting Wednesday. It's asking for bureau OK to amend approval of its planned Ku- and Ka-band mega constellation and have 1,584 satellites orbit at 550 kilometers instead of higher (see 1811090002). The company said that low injection altitude approach -- with the satellites going from there to 550 kilometer orbits -- will make the risk of collision with orbital debris infinitesimal.

Telesat connectivity company OmniAccess will use Telesat's planned low earth orbit (LEO) constellation to provide broadband service for yachts and other high-end maritime operators, Telesat said Wednesday. It's the first customer for the LEO constellation, expected to start commercial operation in 2022.

While multiple manufacturers are working on electronically steered flat panel antennas (FPA) to meet demand stemming from the expected low earth orbit satellite boom, none is expected until after 2020 and delays beyond that could start hurting non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellation operators, Northern Sky Research analyst Dallas Kasaboski blogged Thursday. The vast majority of FPAs now are mechanically steered, but NGSO constellations and better technology should lead to booming demand for electronically steered FPAs, it said.

Viasat hammered Hughes Network System opposition to its request for designation as an eligible telecom carrier (see 1903070067) after winning support in a Connect America Fund Phase II subsidy auction. "The premise underlying Hughes’s opposition is absurd," replied Viasat, posted Thursday in docket 09-197. "When Hughes offers [VoIP] services over its satellite network, it has no qualms about claiming that satellite-provided VoIP services are 'virtually indistinguishable from landline voice service' and meet the applicable standard for federal support under the [CAF] program. But when a competitor proposes a satellite VoIP offering, Hughes’s view of the world suddenly flips. According to Hughes’s opposition, commitments to offer satellite VoIP services that will meet applicable Commission requirements in states like Alabama, California, Florida, and West Virginia should now supposedly be viewed with 'great skepticism.'" The FCC doesn't require a party to "provide the supported service at the time of its ETC application, or that an applicant engage in testing of a current service to assess whether the future supported service will comply with the conditions of that support," the filing said. Viasat "is not obligated to provide CAF II-compliant services for at least three more years." Redwire withdrew an ETC petition after Oklahoma Corporation Commission jurisdictional objections (see 1903070067). "After completing a more thorough comparison of census blocks awarded to Redwire in [the CAF II auction] with Otoe-Missouria tribal lands, it does not appear at this time that any awarded census blocks are located within Otoe-Missouria lands," the company said.

Satellite operators and others are at odds over where to allow communications between earth stations in motion (ESIM) and non-geostationary orbit satellites (NGSO) operating in fixed satellite service (FSS). There are schisms over the 12 GHz band and parts of the Ka band, in docket 18-315 replies Wednesday and Thursday. Boeing backs ESIM operations with NGSO FSS systems in the NPRM-identified bands and in additional FSS allocations. It urged the agency reject co-equal status for ESIMs operating with NGSO FSS and GSO FSS systems in the 18.8-19.3 and 28.6-29.1 GHz bands because that would prejudice the rights of future NGSO FSS systems. OneWeb backs extending ESIM operations into other bands, including the V band and 12 GHz band. It said given its propagation characteristics, V "is well-positioned to become a critical component" of NGSO FSS services to mobile platforms. Telesat Canada said the 12.2-12.7 GHz band has no allocation to FSS and is outside the NPRM's scope. Intelsat supports NGSO ESIM operations in the 12 GHz and other bands on condition NGSOs don't interfere with or claim protection from GSO networks. ViaSat said allowing NGSO FSS ESIM access in spectrum where ESIM deployment is compatible with primary allocated services, such as in the 27.7-28.35 GHz band, would help increase sharing. But the MVDDS 5G Coalition said allowing ESIM/NGSO communications in the 12 GHz band "would ... imperil 5G services," and there are alternative bands for such communications. ESIM operations into 12 GHz "would introduce a number of problems," such as "upend[ing] the delicate balance" among the co-primary services authorized in the band -- multichannel video distribution and data service, NGSO FSS and direct broadcast satellite, echoed MDS Operations and RS Access. They said ESIM/NGSO links in 12 GHz would create coordination problems for incumbent licensees. Iridium said allowing opening the 19.4-19.6 GHz band and the 27.5-30 GHz bands to NGSO FSS systems is "ill-advised" and falls outside the rulemaking's scope. Backing NGSO ESIMs in 27.5-30 GHz, SES/O3b said more FSS frequencies available for NGSO ESIMs will increase mobile capacity. SES/O3b said the FCC should consider NGSO ESIM issues in any future proceeding coming up with service rules for V-band FSS, and that would be timely since the agency has authorized some NGSO operators to use the band. Hughes asked if the FCC allows ESIMs to communicate with geostationary operations in 18.8-19.3 and 28.6-29.1 GHz, clarify those GSO operations are secondary to NGSO operations in the U.S. and co-primary elsewhere.

From an overhauled FAA launch approval process to the U.S. whole-heartedly embracing the small-satellite launch industry, launch executives at a Washington Space Business Roundtable panel Wednesday had a variety of suggestions for how policymakers and regulators could help along the emerging industry. Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis said the pace of launches could be ramped up if the FAA's commercial space regulatory overhaul includes giving a range of trajectories with a launch approval. He said faster acquisition timelines for government contracts would help space startups keep the flow of venture capital going. Firefly Aerospace Vice President-Business Development Les Kovacs said the U.S. needs to specify smallsat launchers are important to the nation's industrial capabilities and funnel more work that way. Stella Guillen, Arianespace vice president-sales and marketing, said the nation needs to open up to foreign vehicles for government payloads. While more than 100 smallsat launchers are at some stage of development, maybe five will survive, Kovacs said. Other panelists wouldn't make predictions. Rocket reusability isn't likely to be a big part of the smallsat launcher business model. "I would love to wrap myself in a reusability flag," but the added fuel and equipment needed for a reusable rocket cuts into the payload size -- a problem when already dealing with smallsats, Kovacs said. Echoed Vox Space Vice President-Government Affairs Jeffrey Trauberman, economics of reusability aren't as compelling for smallsat launchers as for larger vehicles. Planned small satellite mega constellations are a big driver of expectations of a smallsat boom, but some aren't counting on those as big parts of their business plans. If even a fraction of those mega constellations come to fruition, they will mean a shortfall in launch capacity, Guillen said. Smallsat launchers could handle replenishment missions, but larger rockets make sense for putting up those massive constellations, said John Steinmeyer, Northrop Grumman Launch Vehicle Division director-space launch business development. Ellis said the startup's long-term goal is 3D printing of rockets, and such capabilities -- which will be as disruptive as rocket reusability -- are "inevitable," and could come within 20 years.