Intelsat dropped the Gogo branding from the commercial aviation connectivity business it bought in December (see 2012010026), said the company Tuesday. Gogo sold Intelsat the business for $400 million to focus on business aviation connectivity.
Engineers for the Integrity of Broadcast Auxiliary Services Spectrum said it supports co-primary status for space launch use of 2025-2110 MHz only if those uplinks are subject to the same frequency coordination criteria DOD uses for its 2 GHz uplinks, in FCC docket 13-115 comments Monday. It said that protection criteria are achievable and justified since that's what DOD adheres to and since it's longstanding FCC policy that a newcomer spectrum user protect incumbents.
FCC approval of SpaceX's license modification (see 2104260077) should have addressed geostationary orbit interference concerns about SpaceX’s multiple ITU filings and its equivalent power flux density compliance, Hughes officials told an aide to FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and International Bureau staffers, per a filing Friday. SpaceX doesn't dispute its ITU filings could be misused to avoid EPFD compliance, Hughes said, urging the agency to require on reconsideration that SpaceX put in an ITU finding that explicitly says the joint effects of multiple ITU filings associated with its constellation was taken into account for verifying EPFD compliance and confirm that EPFD data files given to requesting parties reflect the operations of its complete system. SpaceX didn't comment Monday.
Earth imaging satellite operator Planet Labs plans to combine with special purpose acquisition company dMY Technology to become publicly traded with an equity value of roughly $2.8 billion, Planet said Wednesday. It said along with the dMY transaction, investors including a variety of BlackRock funds and Google are investing $200 million in dMY. The combined companies will have the $200 million and $345 million in dMY's trust account to expand into existing and new markets and build more software and machine-learning-enabled data products and services. Planet said the deal is expected to close later this year. It said Planet's current management, including the co-founders, CEO Will Marshall and Chief Strategy Officer Robbie Schingler, will continue to lead the public company.
Citing a request by space launch companies for a longer comment and reply deadline on possible dedicated spectrum allocations for commercial space launches (see 2106300038), the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology delayed the docket 13-115 deadline by 30 days. Comments now are due Aug. 11, replies Sept. 10, per Wednesday's order.
SpaceX satellites did 2,219 collision avoidance maneuvers between Dec. 1 and May 31, and in five instances other satellite operators told SpaceX they would prefer to maneuver, the company told the FCC international Bureau in a semiannual status report Friday. SpaceX said its maneuver threshold -- 1 in 100,000 chance of collision -- is a "magnitude more sensitive than the industry standard" of 1 in 10,000.
Eutelsat and Telesat said their parts in the C-band transition are largely complete, in quarterly transition reports Thursday in docket 18-122. Eutelsat said 39 of the 48 incumbent earth station antennas it serves have been transitioned, though additional antenna systems might be added. It said services migration above 4 GHz is 90% complete and all 48 antennas should be complete by August. Telesat said filters have been installed on all earth stations that didn't elect to opt out of the satellite operator handling the transition. It said it anticipates completing the transition in August
Thursday's launch of 36 OneWeb satellites, the company's eighth launch, will let it start providing broadband connectivity across the Northern Hemisphere north of the 50th parallel, it said in a series of tweets. The launch brought the size of its constellation to 254, it said. It said it received a signal from all 36.
Many federal agencies continue to follow the "legal nonsense" from the NTIA indicating they don't have to work with Ligado while there are outstanding petitions for reconsideration of the FCC's license modification approval, Ligado said in a docket 11-109 quarterly status report posted Thursday. It said it contacted agencies about assessing whether they have GPS devices that might need repair or replacement, but only one has engaged with it. "It is surprising that government agencies that just last year claimed to be concerned about their devices are unwilling to take Ligado up on its offer," it said. Ligado said it relocated its GPS augmentation services to frequencies above 1545 MHz to protect GPS. It said the move means more protection for high-precision devices, since augmentation signals will have a 9 MHz guard band protecting them from Ligado's future terrestrial operations. NTIA didn't comment.
The 3,371 satellites in orbit at the end of 2020 was up 144% from 2015, with low earth orbit satellites driving most of that growth, the Satellite Industry Association said Wednesday in its annual "State of the Satellite Industry" report, prepared by Bryce Tech. Communications was 48% of that 3,371, up from 28% in 2019, followed by remote sensing (20%), U.S. entities operate more than 1,900 satellites, some in partnership with other countries, it said. There are 562 active satellites in geostationary orbit, eight more than in 2019, with most providing communications, it said. Overall satellite industry revenue in 2020, at $271 billion, was flat year over year.