The U.S. Public Interest Research Group launched an online letter-writing campaign urging that the FCC require environmental reviews for proposed satellites and constellations. Pointing to greater amounts of debris expected in the atmosphere from planned mega constellations, PIRG said the FCC should temporarily halt additional satellite low earth orbit launches until after it conducts environmental reviews for mega constellations and ends its categorical exclusion for satellites. Under the National Environmental Policy Act's categorical exclusion, an environmental assessment is needed only if the FCC determines the license could have a significant environmental impact. "The new space race doesn’t need to create massive space waste," PIRG said.

With the demand for laser-based satellite communications taking off, vendors should make scalability and terminal interoperability priorities, ABI Research blogged Wednesday. They also must try to partner with other ecosystem players to attract governments and commercial operations, it said. Satellite deployments with laser payloads in orbit are expected to grow from slightly more than 4,000 this year to 12,600 by 2027, ABI said.

SpaceX's Starlink will provide free, emergency messaging to all smartphones worldwide, CEO Elon Musk posted on X this week. He said the offer would apply except where a nation's regulation precluded it. "Can’t have a situation where someone dies because they forgot or were unable to pay for it," he said.

SES' O3b is pushing its formula for evaluating earlier-round and later-round non-geostationary orbit satellite systems' compatibility. In a docket 21-456 filing Friday recapping a meeting with FCC Space Bureau staffers, O3b said SpaceX's NGSO coexistence proposal (see 2408150034) would harm established services and eliminate incentives for later-round systems to coordinate with earlier-round ones. O3b said its formula ensures the highest availability links are adequately protected while allowing later-round systems to impose relative increases in unavailability that are notably higher than what has been previously suggested.

Additional conditions on Satellogic's proposed earth observation satellite service constellation (see 2403080002) are acceptable as long as they're not more burdensome than those the FCC has put on similarly situated applicants, the satellite operator said. Satellogic told the FCC Space Bureau this week it has no objection to such conditions as semi-annual reporting to the FCC on near-miss events, and mandatory reporting of loss of control of satellites at altitudes above 350 km. Earlier this month, SpaceX urged conditions on Satellogic akin to what the agency put on SpaceX's second-generation Starlink satellites. SpaceX has made similar requests regarding numerous other pending constellations (see 2301180049).

Mynaric is blaming production delays for its Condor Mk3 satellite laser communications terminal for bigger projected losses this year. It said Tuesday that owing to issues such as component supplier shortages, it was expecting 2024 losses of $55.5 million to $61 million instead of its previous forecasted $33.3 million to $44.4 million. Mynaric also said CFO Stefan Berndt von-Bulow left the company.

Phasing in regulatory fees tied to creation of the FCC's Space Bureau will mitigate some of the "rate shock" that could affect satellite operators, particularly smaller organizations, Iridium representatives told the office of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, according to a filing posted Tuesday in docket 24-85. Iridium also lobbied that the agency adopt an alternative methodology that would base fees for satellite constellations on "units" of individual geostationary satellites and groupings of non-geostationaries, with both operating and authorized satellite systems paying regulatory fees. Iridium said that its units approach recognizes the extent to which larger systems impose greater costs on the bureau. Iridium has advocated similarly with several of the regular commissioners' offices.

SpaceX subsidiary Swarm Technologies wants FCC Space Bureau approval for SpaceX to integrate VHF-band mobile satellite service Swarm antennas as payloads on SpaceX's first-generation non-geostationary orbit satellite system. In an application posted Monday, Swarm said SpaceX's second-gen Starlink satellites have used similar payloads for more than 16 months with no interference complaints. It said the payloads would let SpaceX better track and maintain contact with first-gen satellites during space weather events and orbit raising.

SpaceX's Starlink broadband service subscribers experience fewer service outages than cable customers but more than fiber customers, Recon Analytics noted Monday. Based on surveying more than 1,300 Starlink subscribers between May 12 and July 5, Recon said Starlink subscribers experience "near industry-leading speed consistency with the most reliable router." In addition, it said 11% of Starlink customers are new to home internet and often live in very rural areas. Recon said the rural alternatives to Starlink "are generally underwhelming," with most Starlink subscribers coming from DSL providers or other satellite providers. Starlink must improve its over-the-phone billing and technical support and in-store experience, Recon said. SpaceX didn't commission the survey, Recon told us.

An Israeli company is seeking U.S. market access for its BeetleSat non-geostationary orbit constellation. In an FCC Space Bureau petition posted Monday, NSLComm said BeetleSat will deliver point-to-point secure communications, mobility, cellular backhaul and other services. It said the expandable antennas on the 9 kg nanonsatellites will let it offer Gbps bandwidth communications 100 times more efficient than other systems in operation. NSLComm said it launched its second demonstration satellite, NSLSAT-2, in January 2023. The company plans to deploy two more demonstration satellites by the end of 2025, and commence full-scale commercial BeetleSat services in 2027, with a goal of deploying a 344-satellite constellation in two phases.