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.

The small satellite industry supports reduced FCC application fees for smallsat systems, SmallSat Alliance President Steven Nixon told International Bureau staff, per a docket 18-86 posting Monday.

The C-Band Alliance is preparing a C-band auction and transition plan to be filed with the FCC, with goals including openness, transparency and speed, the CBA wrote in docket 18-122 Friday. It recapped meeting Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale and Office of Economics and Analytics and International Bureau representatives about its plan and T-Mobile critiques of it. Charter Communications took arguments against the CBA plan and for its own band-clearing proposal (see 1902250064) to the FCC with meetings with aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly, Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks and with OEA staffers, it said, posted Friday.

The first six of OneWeb's broadband satellites launched Wednesday from Kourou, French Guiana, the company said Thursday. It said its monthly launch schedule will expand its constellation to more than 650 satellites, allowing customer demos in 2020 and full global commercial coverage by 2021.

SpaceX received FCC Office of Engineering and Technology OK for experimental license to operate an R&D vertical takeoff/vertical landing vehicle in Texas. SpaceX said in its application it will maintain a bidirectional RF link on the vehicle and run two batches of flight tests: flights below 500 meters in altitude lasting about 100 seconds, and flights as high as 5 kilometers and lasting as long as six minutes. The company said it also was seeking an experimental permit from the FAA for the test flights.

Making any satellite operator wishing to update its system do an analysis of any particular configuration for every other satellite system is an "extraordinary" regulatory burden the FCC doesn't and shouldn't impose, SpaceX said in an International Bureau filing last week. It responded to opposition to its request to move part of its planned 4,409-satellite constellation from a 1,150-kilometer orbit to 550 kilometers (see 1811090002). It said to assuage SES/O3b concerns about interference, it analyzed possible effects on those satellite systems, finding the proposed modification won't increase interference. It said OneWeb concerns also are inaccurate and it faces no increased interference risks.

While 5G specifications for satellite communications seem "unattainable" today, "5G is great news for the satellite industry" because it points to easier integration and opening of new markets like IoT and multicast streaming, Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm-Serra blogged Monday. He said the "highly touted" 10 Gbps per connection target shouldn't discourage satcom: LTE had been aiming for 1 Gbps for a decade after the standard was finalized and the majority of LTE networks still don't meet that performance level, "so do not expect networks to meet 5G promises overnight." He said top satellite performance reaches terrestrial specifications.

Dish Network designated entities' appeal of the FCC order (see 1807130003) reaffirming Wireless Bureau procedures for the DEs to comply with the court's 2017 remand should remain in abeyance since commission proceedings on the court's remand are pending, the agency said in a docket 18-1209 status report (in Pacer) Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Comments are due April 8, replies May 8 on the FCC Further NPRM adopted in September that would designate additional spectrum bands for earth stations in motion communicating with geostationary satellites (see 1809260029), said Friday's Federal Register.

The FCC's claim to jurisdiction over orbital debris "rests on a thin reed [since] debris generation is not radio communication," space lawyer Laura Montgomery blogged Thursday. She said the launch industry might also want to make clear in the orbital debris NPRM approved at November's meeting (see 1811150028) that the FAA has exclusive jurisdiction over, and the FCC can't put requirements on, launch and re-entry. She said just asking whether requirements could overlap into the domain of other regulatory agencies opens the door to the FCC visiting the issue of regulating debris from launch vehicles. She said it's not clear what congressional authority it has to require licensees indemnify the federal government under damage claims under the Outer Space Treaty and the Space Liability Convention. She also said it's equally unclear how the FCC can discuss requiring disclosure of debris mitigation plans for deployment mechanisms if those devices don't carry a transmitter requiring an FCC license. In a docket 18-313 posting Wednesday, debris mitigation advocacy group Satellite Design for Recovery said orbital debris discussions and rules changes are needed regardless of whether the FCC is the proper agency to drive those. It said design requirements should accommodate future active removal, such as grappling features, and the 25-year lifespan should be replaced with a risk-based rule based on the satellite's orbital altitude, collision cross-section and operating lifetime.