Partnering with mobile operator One New Zealand, SpaceX said in a docket 23-135 filing Thursday that it has the authorizations to start supplemental coverage from space service in that country.

The non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service interference protection order that the FCC adopted in November becomes effective Jan. 13, said a notice for Friday's Federal Register. The order, approved on circulation, relaxes the protection criteria for NGSO FSS systems approved in different processing rounds (see 2411150007).

NASA is conducting the first aircraft accident investigation on another planet, its Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote Wednesday. It said JPL engineers, along with unmanned aerial vehicle defense contractor AeroVironment, are assessing the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's Jan. 18 flight. The lab said a NASA technical report with results will be published in coming weeks. The investigation points to the inability of Ingenuity's navigation system to provide accurate data during the flight, likely leading to the crash.

The U.S.' decades old non-geostationary/geostationary orbit satellite spectrum-sharing framework "drastically" limits the level of satellite broadband service, SpaceX told FCC officials as the company urged action on its petition to initiate a rulemaking updating that framework (see 2408120018). In a filing posted Wednesday recapping company meetings with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office and with Space Bureau and Office of International Affairs staff, SpaceX said the agency shouldn't wait for the "unnecessarily slow" ITU to update its NGSO-GSO sharing rules. ITU's 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference called for studying potentially higher NGSO-GSO equivalent power flux density limits ahead of WRC-27.

Partnering quickly with SpaceX's Starlink to jointly provide maritime connectivity, Speedcast may have inadvertently shot itself in the foot as it helped normalize an increasing shift to Starlink, Satmarin Exoflux's Michael de Coninck wrote Tuesday on LinkedIn. An industry-wide adoption of Starlink's maritime service has eroded Speedcast's early mover advantage. "The very market Speedcast sought to dominate quickly became saturated, leaving the company to compete on razor-thin margins against providers offering similar Starlink-based solutions," he said. And in its embrace of Starlink, Speedcast might have accelerated a migration from its higher-margin very small aperture terminal solutions to Starlink's lower-margin offering, he added.

Lynk Global wants its non-geostationary orbit license to include authority for supplemental coverage from space (SCS) operations in the 845.1-845.3 MHz and 890.1-890.3 MHz frequencies throughout Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Tuesday, Lynk said it has SCS regulatory approvals in more than 30 countries and is deployed commercially via more than 40 mobile network operator commercial service contracts covering approximately 50 countries. The company said it is "well prepared to provide commercial service in the U.S." and that it has a lease agreement with Docomo, a terrestrial wireless licensee that holds all co-channel licenses throughout the Guam/Northern Mariana Islands region. Moreover, Lynk said its SCS operations are compatible with those in the leased frequencies. It said Docomo holds all the Channel Block A licensed frequencies in that region and is the only party that can operate in this spectrum and geographic location.

AST SpaceMobile and Vodafone have signed a 10-year commercial agreement that sets the framework for Vodafone to offer AST's satellite-based cellular broadband connectivity in its home markets as well to other operators, the companies said Monday. Vodafone also is an investor in AST.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), which has complained to the FCC about SpaceX's alleged conduct in the Russia-Ukraine War, is now raising concerns about the company's environmental impact and CEO Elon Musk's role in President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration. In a petition to deny last week filed with the FCC Space Bureau, UCCA said the agency has a legal responsibility to consider whether there needs to be an environmental assessment or impact statement done for large constellations as part of its review of proposed launches of Starlink satellites from SpaceX's Texas launch site. "More satellites and launches lead to more polluting, soot, gases and metals in the Earth’s atmosphere," it said. UCCA urged the agency to refrain from any further authorizations to Starlink for satellites, frequencies or capacity absent an environmental assessment/ impact statement and before SpaceX shows that further launches of its rockets won't cause environmental harm around the launch site. In a separate motion for stay, UCCA said Musk's role as co-head of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, while also running SpaceX, violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act by creating a conflict of interest or the appearance of one. It called on the agency to stop processing all SpaceX applications and requests until any conflicts of interest are addressed. Given Musk's companies' dealings with the federal government -- both as regulatees and as suppliers -- having him in charge of DOGE "is equivalent to allowing a fox to guard the henhouse," the group said. SpaceX didn't comment Friday. The Ukrainian-American organizations' umbrella group petitioned the FCC in April seeking an investigation of whether SpaceX should lose its licenses because it allegedly disabled the Ukrainian military's use of Starlink while allowing its use by Russia (see 2404240019). Space regulatory experts don't expect the agency to start requiring environmental reviews of satellite systems anytime soon (see 2409200008).

Sierra Nevada is eyeing a June launch for its proposed constellation of three non-geostationary orbit RF-sensing earth exploration satellite system satellites, it said in an FCC Space Bureau application posted Friday. The three are intended to detect and geolocate signals in the VHF, UHF, global navigation satellite system, X-, S-, L- and Ku/Ka-bands, it said.

Expect FAA restrictions on commercial space launches with an eye toward faster development in the commercial space sector, Pillsbury lawyers wrote last week. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been critical of what he believes is the FAA's slow approach to SpaceX launch approvals, and his potential role in the President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration will be a "powerful impetus for a more flexible approach," they added.