SES is swapping its launches and launchers of its SES-12 and SES-14 satellites. SES said Monday both are scheduled for Q1 2018 launches, but moving the SES-14 first, and to Arianespace, lets the company replace its NSS-806 satellite more quickly. SES-12 will be launched on SpaceX. Both satellites will employ electric propulsion for orbit raising and will go into service -- SES-14 at 47.5 degrees west, SES-12 at 95 degrees east -- four to six months after launch, it said.

Without waiver of the domestic coverage requirement, providing broadband service to the Arctic areas of the U.S., primarily Alaska, won't happen, Space Norway said in a docket 16-408 filing Friday. The letter was in response to Arctic Slope Regional Corp. (ASRC) earlier this month urging the FCC not to waive domestic coverage requirement for the various non-geostationary satellite constellations being proposed, including Space Norway's (see 1708100039). Space Norway said the domestic coverage requirement might not be appropriate for a system specifically intended for an Arctic service, and providing continual fixed satellite service throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands isn't feasible in its Arctic satellite broadband mission design. ASRC didn't comment.

The FCC's final rule waiving carrier identification compliance for satellite news trucks and other temporary fixed earth stations will be effective Sept. 25, said a notice in Friday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved the order before their August meeting (see 1707310047).

AMC-2's license term expires at year's end, and SES wants to extend that to Dec. 31, 2020, it said in an FCC International Bureau filing Wednesday. SES said the C- and Ku-band satellite has sufficient fuel to provide service for three more years and its subsequent deorbiting.

Hiking the per-subscriber direct broadcast satellite regulatory fee hurts consumers because that expense will be passed on to them, and the FCC hasn't said what regulatory developments of the past year justify such a "dramatic" rate increase for the third consecutive year, Dish Network argued. In a docket 17-134 ex parte filing posted Tuesday, it recapped a series of phone calls to eighth-floor aides in which Dish said agency arguments that a higher DBS regulatory fee would bring it closer to parity with cable TV and IPTV run counter to the FCC having acknowledged DBS isn't identical to cable and that it and DirecTV don't generate regulatory costs near what cable does. Dish and DirecTV have opposed the proposed 38 cents per subscriber fee on DBS (see 1706230027).

The Air Force's Operationally Responsive Space-5 (ORS-5) satellite is scheduled to launch Friday aboard an Orbital ATK Minotaur IV rocket, the Air Force Space Command said in a news release Tuesday. ORS-5 will be used to help track other satellites and space debris in geosynchronous orbit, it said.

Alaska Airlines plans to install Gogo's 2Ku in-flight connectivity offering on its Boeing and Airbus fleet, Gogo said in a news release Tuesday. It said the 2Ku service will be installed on AA's Boeing 737s starting in the first half of 2018, with the AA fleet -- including Virgin America, which AA bought in 2016 -- to be fully satellite-equipped by early 2020.

Dish Network is asking a federal court to continue to stay National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh's litigation seeking declarations that it has no duty to defend or indemnify Dish in connection with a combined federal/state Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint. The suit was stayed in February 2016, pending the outcome of the TCPA litigation. Dish, in its motion (in Pacer) filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Denver, said it likely will appeal the $280 million judgment entered against it in June (see 1706060069), so National Union’s duty to indemnify "remains uncertain and contingent." Dish also cited its ongoing appeal before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a related insurance coverage dispute involving Ace American Insurance (see 1707170004), saying the 10th Circuit's guidance about insurance coverage issues "is likely to have import in this case." National Union outside counsel didn't comment.

Small-satellite operators need to be concerned with growing space debris problems because such satellites are generally less agile in orbit, with underpowered propulsion systems, and because the proliferation of planned smallsat constellations is a likely debris source, space investing firm Space Angels blogged Monday. It said beyond commercial approaches being proposed, such as better debris tracking, the smallsat industry has an obligation to self-police -- perhaps through the proposed Smallsat Space Traffic Safety Consortium -- before a catastrophic incident leads "to reactionary government regulations after the fact."

Globecomm rejoined the Satellite Industry Association, SIA said in a news release Monday. It said the satcom services company left last year.