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.

Inter-satellite communications company Audacy and earth observation company Iceye agreed to collaborate on continuous satellite communications for Iceye's planned synthetic-aperture radar constellation, Audacy said Monday.

Legacy video subscriber totals dropped below 90 million in Q4, reflecting changing viewer preferences (see this section, March 12), Kagan reported Tuesday, as 1.1 million Q4 MVPD subscription losses pushed the full-year drop-off to 4 million. DBS had more than half of the year’s loss. Virtual platforms partially offset the traditional multichannel decline, keeping customers in a subscription package of live linear channels, but gains to Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV didn’t offset MVPD losses. Traditional and vMVPD subs combined fell nearly 1.3 million for the year, while the residential penetration rate for both dipped to 75 percent in Q4. Cable operators lost 1.3 million subscribers vs. 997,000 in 2017, telcos lost 351,000 and DirecTV and Dish Network each lost more than 1 million, it said.

With some satellite operators proposing an alternative to divvying up proceeds from C-band clearing (see 1903110059), the C-Band Alliance emailed us Monday that it's "striking" that ABS Global, Hispasat and Embratel Star One have a compensation formula yet still haven't commented on the CBA-proposed technical rules for protecting incumbent earth station operators from interference. "But this is not surprising, given that they have no customers, earn no revenue from U.S.-based services, will not have to relocate (or potentially lose) any customers, and will incur no transition-related expenses or activities," CBA said. It said opening the C band to terrestrial services won't affect those small operators' current business.

Satellite capacity pricing dropped on average 18 percent over the past 12 months, with video distribution pricing down 7.1 percent, mobility down 13 percent and some data segments down as much as 24 percent, Northern Sky Research said Monday. Driving down pricing is the cheap bulk supply of high-throughput capacity that's making legacy satellites "increasingly obsolete," NSR said. The firm said backhaul and broadband deployments helped boost capacity demand. It expects video declines to accelerate to 11 percent in 2019-20 because of higher compression rates and market saturation. It said mobility's decline also will accelerate. NSR said there are still regions in developing countries showing significant demand for backhaul and Wi-Fi that could help boost revenue.

A group of small satellite operators is pushing a "distribution and scoring model" for deciding what revenue from C-band clearing gets distributed to whom. In a docket 18-122 posting Monday on meeting aides to Chairman Ajit Pai, ABS Global, Hispasat and Embratel Star One said under their model, after relocation and filter costs for affected earth stations, financial incentives for those earth stations, and a fixed percentage of proceeds going to the Treasury, remaining proceeds from any spectrum rights sale would be divided. One-third would go equally to the eight C-band operators authorized to service the U.S. and two-thirds divided among their 62 satellites based on service life. They said that approach has lower risk of legal and technical challenges and delays than the C-Band Alliance (CBA) plan. They said if there's to be a private-market sale of the spectrum, it can't be managed by the CBA since it "forfeited any pretense of objectivity or fairness." CBA didn't comment. A filing recapped meeting an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. It said 26 of 27 orbital slots covering all or nearly all the U.S. are occupied and other orbital locations don't provide the 50-state coverage programmers and broadcasters require. CBA's plan also garnered satellite criticism Monday (see 1903110058).

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology OK'd a modification to Audacy's experimental radio license for its proposed non-geostationary orbit satellite constellation. The modification reduces the size and power of the Napa, California, earth station and its location. The FCC approved its satellite constellation plans in June (see 1806050057).

As it seeks U.S. market access for its Luxembourg-licensed SES-17 high-throughput satellite, SES also wants the FCC to amend rules to allow fixed satellite service downlinks in the 17.3-17.7 GHz band on a protected basis. Tuesday's petition said downlinks in the 17 GHz band wouldn't hurt the FSS uplinks and broadcasting service downlinks allocated there on a co-primary basis, but its FSS downlinks would be unprotected. It said the proposed rules change would allow more intensive use of the band. In a separate International Bureau filing Tuesday asking for market access, SES said the Ka-band SES-17 operates at 67.1 degrees west and will supplement the SES-10 Ku-band spacecraft at 66.9 degrees west with a particular focus on aeronautical connectivity.

The FAA needs to find better solutions for pilot confusion caused by its notification of DOD's ongoing GPS jamming test exercises around the U.S., the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association said last week. The FAA said it issues notifications, but the Pentagon decides test timing and scope. The FAA Tuesday referred further questions to Defense.

A failure among one of the space industry startup "unicorns" -- privately held companies valued in excess of $1 billion -- could make it tougher for other space startups to attract venture capital, slowing industry development "for a long period," blogged former Northern Sky Research analyst Sumanta Pal Sunday. But other routes to raising capital -- like debt-based financing -- could help fill that gap, NSR said. It said space investors have been patient in awaiting returns, but pressure is greater than ever for unicorns to succeed because of the impact failure could have on the industry broadly.