NearSpace Launch, New Space New Mexico and Vox Space joined the SmallSat Alliance, it said Friday.

SpaceX as a U.S. company would likely still need an FAA license under the Commercial Space Launch Act, even if it was launching rockets from international waters, space lawyer Laura Montgomery blogged Friday. Company founder Elon Musk tweeted last week it's moving toward "floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, moon & hypersonic travel around Earth."

Comments are due Thursday, replies June 30, on PSSI's request for a stay of the FCC's C-band order pending judicial review, the Wireless Bureau said. In its stay ask, PSSI in docket 18-122 said clearing 300 MHz of C band without sufficient interference and power level protections essentially renders its licenses "worthless."

Small satellite operators (SSO) ABS Global, Empresa and Hispasat's ask for a stay of the FCC's C-band clearing order (see 2005180036) didn't show they would be harmed without one since the deadline for ending operations is December 2025 and their compliance is easy because they aren't using the band to serve U.S. customers. That's according to the FCC Thursday in a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit response (in Pacer, docket 20-1142). None of the initial transition steps of the next year-plus would harm the SSOs and the court has plenty of time to consider and decide before any payments are made to any satellite operator, it said. Joining the FCC were CTIA, AT&T, and Verizon, which said (in Pacer) they backed an expedited decision on the challenges to the order before the Dec. 8 C-band auction commences because that would "provide certainty that benefits the public and prospective auction bidders." They said a stay would cause "tremendous harm ... throughout the entire wireless ecosystem and the broader economy." Also opposing a stay, SES said (in Pacer) the C-band order was justified by the FCC's broad authority and the alleged economic harms to the SSOs aren't real. SSO outside counsel didn't comment.

SpaceX's request to have 2,824 satellites operate at lower orbit (see 2004200003) would mean more power from its non-geostationary orbit network transmitting into co-channel Ku-band DBS receivers, and it hasn't shown that power won't exceed what standard DBS reference antennas can tolerate, said an FCC International Bureau filing Tuesday by Dish Network urging dismissal. Dish said SpaceX claims of reduced effective isotropic radiated power density contain "dubious assumptions and language." The Balance Group said SpaceX's reply to its opposition (see 2006090001) shows it either didn't understand the arguments or ignores issues with its requested major modification. SpaceX didn't comment Wednesday.

Noting feedback it received (for example, see 1707240050), the FCC International Bureau issued guidance Tuesday on conditions for fixed satellite service earth stations operating in bands shared with upper microwave flexible use service. The guidance covers such issues as determining estimated aggregate population coverage and collocation of earth stations.

SES is buying two satellites each from Northrop Grumman and Boeing as part of the FCC's C-band clearing effort, it said Tuesday. It said their launches are slated for Q3 2022. Intelsat announced six new satellites for C-band relocation Monday (see 2006150053). The Intelsat and SES orders, to be built in the U.S., are "good for American jobs!," tweeted FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry Tuesday.

SpaceX's petition for a revision of FCC spectrum-sharing rules among non-geostationary orbit systems (see here) got some agreement from other satellite operators on the broad outlines and strong pushback on the details, in filings Tuesday. O3b said SpaceX’s suggested language for determining when a later round applicant is coordinated with a system authorized in an earlier round is undefined and incomplete. ViaSat said it agrees licensees in later processing rounds should protect licensees from earlier processing rounds against interference to a specified level, but "the devil is in the details" and SpaceX's proposed measures such as required sharing of beam pointing information have serious problems. Karousel said SpaceX's proposed efficiency test for adjudicating rights among licensees "appears certain to reward only SpaceX." It said instead that when band splitting is required, each party should be able to choose its preferred band segment and if parties choose the same one, random selection settles the dispute. Amazon's Kuiper said the FCC should avoid restrictive technical sharing requirements, and the current trigger requiring splitting is "overly conservative." It urged instead incentivizing less-interfering systems by awarding first choice of spectrum selection to satellite networks causing less interference in spectrum-splitting events. OneWeb urged denying the petition but said if the agency does initiate a rulemaking it should look at a spectrum sharing framework based on ITU date priority. SpaceX didn't comment.

The Satellite Industry Association “strongly encourages” the Senate to “rapidly” reconfirm FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, President Tom Stroup said Monday. The Senate Commerce Committee plans a Tuesday confirmation hearing (see 2006100056). Trump renominated O’Rielly in March to a term ending June 30, 2024. O’Rielly for now can remain until 2021. He has a good chance of Senate OK (see 2004030072).

T-Mobile and Dish Network appear to be struggling to work out a deal on the sale of Boost, a step required as part of government’s approval of T-Mobile buying Sprint. Dish is supposed to buy Boost for $1.4 billion. T-Mobile has until July 1 to close the sale under an April 1 consent decree (see 2004010069). They are also still negotiating lease terms for T-Mobile’s use of Dish’s 600 MHz spectrum. “We believe that both parties remain focused on getting the deal done,” Citi’s Michal Rollins told investors last week: “There are pre-conditions that New T-Mobile has to satisfy before the transaction could be completed.” The analyst noted Dish disclosed the use of a mediator for the negotiations. “While we hear reports of T-Mobile potentially selling Boost to others, we don’t see that contemplated by the DOJ or FCC documents and we think such a sale would undermine the arguments the federal government entities made to the courts and the public about creating a fourth competitor,” New Street’s Blair Levin said Friday. “DISH likely believes it will have to buy Boost to get the extension and will act accordingly,” Levin said: “While we think it could litigate the issue, the risk of losing is sufficiently high, and the potential cost of being denied the extension would be far greater than the cost of buying Boost.” Dish and T-Mobile declined comment.