Since the thousands of satellites SpaceX plans to deploy could have a notable environmental impact, it was incumbent on the FCC to order an environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act, appellants Viasat and Balance Group told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday in a reply brief (docket 21-1123). They and Dish Network are challenging the license modification granted SpaceX earlier this year (see 2106020036). Dish, in its appellant reply brief, said its appeal "boils down to whether the Commission was permitted to ignore the evidence, as it admits it did, in the name of a rule that did not preclude a look at the evidence." It said the D.C. Circuit has made clear an agency must consider evidence that its application of a rule in a given situation is unreasonable. The FCC didn't comment Wednesday.

Hiber will use Inmarsat's Elera global IoT satellite network as a connectivity backbone for its IoT Hiberband service, they announced Tuesday. Hiber said the partnership lets it provide connectivity in more places and offer a range of new IoT applications.

Lynk's proposed delivery of mobile service via satellite (see 2105120002) would be “an unprecedented change to how the FCC treats spectrum allocated for terrestrial use,” Hughes Network said Tuesday in an FCC International Bureau petition to deny. It said Lynk's application sidesteps major questions by not describing ultimate deployment plans and not indicating how it would share relevant spectrum with other satellite operators. It urged the FCC to do first a rulemaking or other proceeding about whether to allow use of terrestrial wireless frequencies for satellite communications and what conditions should govern such use. Inmarsat told the bureau Lynk approval would need to be conditioned on particular equivalent power flux density limits, that mobile satellite service operations in the 20.1-20.2 GHz and 29.9-30 GHz bands should be conducted on a non-interference non-protected basis with respect to other fixed satellite service operations and that operations in the 29.9-30.0 GHz bands should be on a secondary basis with respect to geostationary FSS operations. Lynk didn't comment. AST, also planning mobile service via satellite, faces petitions to deny its request for U.S. market access for a planned 243-satellite constellation (see 2011040003).

Citing additional jobs at AST's Midland, Texas, manufacturing facility and the 5G race, Midland Development urged FCC approval of AST's pending U.S. market access petition (see 2004140001), in a letter Thursday to the International Bureau.

O3b plans to launch the first three of its next-generation mPower satellites in December, followed by three more in early 2022, it told the FCC International Bureau Thursday. The company is seeking temporary authority to let the non-geostationary orbit satellites communicate with gateway earth stations in Hawaii and Arizona for 180 days starting Dec. 16 during launch and early orbit phase operations and in support of testing.

AST's BlueWalker 3 test satellite is expected to go up on a SpaceX launch as soon as March and is designed to communicate with cellphones directly using 3rd Generation Partnership Project standard frequencies in a demonstration of the SpaceMobile system design, AST executives told aides to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, said an International Bureau filing Tuesday. AST said its Midland, Texas, production facilities will eventually have a production capacity of up to six satellites a month. It said it expects to start commercial service in 2023 with a 20-satellite equatorial constellation to allow North American, European and Asian coverage and then full global coverage. It said it has regulatory approvals in six countries and test authorizations in others.

Eutelsat plans to increase its stake in OneWeb, from 17.6% to 22.9% in exchange for $165 million, it said Wednesday. It said the deal should close by year's end. Eutelsat CEO Rodolphe Belmer said OneWeb's progress in offering global service, "together with the vote of confidence demonstrated by the commitment of both its investors and future customers, makes us even more convinced of OneWeb’s right-to-win in the low earth orbit constellation segment.”

Amazon Kuiper's attempt to claim out-of-band emissions compliance based on aggregate equivalent power flux density limits across multiple ITU non-geostationary orbit system filings would possibly be a circumvention of ITU and FCC rules designed to limit NGSO emissions, Viasat told the FCC International Bureau Tuesday. It said it backed SES/O3b objections to Kuiper's request for removal of a condition to its 2020 authorization (see 2108090003), It said Kuiper arguments that SpaceX didn't face similar conditions about consideration of the joint effect of multiple ITU filings ignores that the SpaceX order earlier this year remains subject to petitions for reconsideration and appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Maintaining that joint effect condition would violate the Administrative Procedure Act because the FCC never explained why it's being treated differently from other NGSO operators, Kuiper said, saying it also goes against commission precedent.

China is leading global competition in space-enabled quantum communications, and the West will likely try to catch up, Northern Sky Research analyst Arthur Van Eeckhout blogged Monday, noting quantum satcom efforts worldwide. He said predictions are for more than 30 such launches by decade's end.

SpaceX's Starlink satellites have been screened from being deployed in orbit for solar array deployment mechanism failures or avionics failures not allowing control in a high-drag environment, the satellite operator told the FCC International Bureau Monday in response to FCC questions about its Starlink status report (see 2109200003). It said the solar array deployment mechanism was modified, and production control changes were made to tackle the avionics failures. It said it's being open about the health of its constellation, but the FCC should look at requiring increased transparency by other operators, such as publishing space situational awareness data.