The FCC Space and Wireless bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology signed off Friday on license transfers needed as part of SES' $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat. It put no special conditions on the transaction. SES/Intelsat is likely to result in lower costs from synergies, better network quality, increased investment, national security benefits "and the creation of a more vigorous satellite competitor," the bureaus said in a 35-page order.

Pointing to the various challenges facing the development of in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) technology, the Government Accountability Office last week laid out a set of policy options. GAO said a chief ISAM technology development hurdle is the "chicken-and-egg problem" -- ISAM providers are hesitant to develop technologies before there's a user base, while potential users are hesitant to create satellites that could be serviced in orbit until in-orbit servicing is commercially available. Adding to the problem is the fact that government and private satellite operators generally don't require their satellites to be designed for future servicing, such as refueling, GAO said, and there are few in-space opportunities for testing of ISAM technology.

Approval of SES' buying Intelsat should be conditioned on the new combined company complying with a variety of national security directives, NTIA petitioned the FCC on Monday (docket 24-267). The petition was on behalf of the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, or Team Telecom. The proposed conditions include the new company making available, when requested, network-management information or a list of customers that have hosted payloads on U.S. satellites or are using U.S.-located earth stations to connect with SES satellites. The $3.1 billion deal was announced in April 2024 (see 2404300048).

T-Mobile's opposition to AST SpaceMobile's plans to use the 700 and 800 MHz bands for supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service (see 2506270038) is baseless, AST said in a filing posted Tuesday (docket 25-201). While T-Mobile argues more information is needed, the application is "ample," AST said. The company also noted that T-Mobile is demanding SCS coverage maps from AST, but T-Mobile's SCS partner, SpaceX, didn't provide such maps in its application.

SpaceX's shutdown of 500 Starlink satellites in the first half of 2025 raises questions about the company's financial picture, network capacity expert Roderick Beck blogged Monday. They were all less than 5 years old, and such shorter-than-expected lifespans for Starlinks could affect the company's income by increasing network depreciation and replacement needs, he said. Starlinks cost about $500,000 each to manufacture and $3 million to get into orbit, Beck noted. Generally, it takes four suppliers in a market to crash prices and eliminate profit levels higher than what a competitive market would see, and it remains to be seen if the low earth orbit services from Amazon's Kuiper and Chinese mega constellations will provide the necessary level of competition, he added.

Momentus is hoping for a February launch of its Vigoride-7 in-space transportation craft. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Tuesday, the company said the vehicle -- which would spend 1.5 years in low earth orbit, deploying customers' payloads -- would operate in the S and X bands and host a customer payload operating in the 2.4 GHz band. It said future Vigoride iterations would also perform on-orbit services such as rendezvous, proximity operations and debris removal.

NOAA's proposal to defund the civil Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) is based on a faulty premise that the commercial sector can replicate it, University of Texas at Austin professor Moriba Jah wrote Wednesday. No commercial space situational awareness company today has full-sky coverage or the kind of transparent data needed to build trust internationally, said Jah, who leads the school's space security and safety program. However, such companies maintain they can manage space traffic "because marketing always outruns capability." With TraCSS gone, the burden will be back on DOD, he said, and while it "does good work in tracking threats. ... their mission is not public safety" or transparency. Ending TraCSS "hands over the keys of the orbital commons to a cartel of self-interested vendors."

The 2 GHz and 1.6/2.4 GHz mobile satellite service (MSS) bands are prime for sharing with new entrant satellite systems, SpaceX told FCC Space Bureau staff, including Chief Jay Schwarz. In a docket 25-173 filing posted Wednesday recapping the meeting, SpaceX said the agency should make clear that EchoStar's market access in the 2 GHz band has expired and that the band is open for competitive entry. Granting Globalstar's application for 1.6/2.4 GHz access for its French-licensed C-3 system without processing other pending applications "would effectively cede control" of harmonized midband MSS frequencies to a foreign administration, it said. SpaceX also discussed satellite-related proposals in the FCC's "Delete" proceeding, including the addition of categories of satellite modifications that don't require prior approval. In a docket 25-133 filing, SpaceX said it also proposed adopting "self-coordinated 'light licensing'” instead of site-by-site earth station licensing in millimeter-wave bands and presuming that granting a satellite or earth station application would serve the public interest as long as it operates within existing rules.

DOD might be missing opportunities to charge commercial space launch companies millions of dollars for their use of federal launch sites, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. That money could support infrastructure improvements at the sites, it added. DOD expects to spend more than $18 billion on launch services and infrastructure over the next five years, according to GAO. Until recently, the department lacked the ability to bill for indirect costs of commercial launch services, including the cost of maintaining and operating its space-related facilities. DOD has more ability now to collect those costs, GAO said, but it still lacks clear cost-collection and reimbursement guidance for support services at launch ranges. It recommended that DOD ensure that the Space Force collaborates with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Comptroller to better define the guidance for collecting and reimbursing direct and indirect costs for support services at launch ranges. It also recommended that Space Force prioritize getting better insight into the schedules of commercial operators integrating payloads and launch vehicles.

Getting and maintaining a satellite license is costlier in the U.S. than anywhere else, and the bond requirement means a lot of capital being set aside that could be invested in the business, according to Astranis Space Technologies. The company discussed licensing issues in a meeting with FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz, said a filing posted Monday (docket 25-133). The agency's bond structure "serves to freeze out new entrants while enabling established operators with large fleets to secure additional spectrum bond-free," it said. The small geostationary orbit satellite operator also urged the FCC to allow applications on a given orbit location rather than on a per-satellite basis.