Government/Military

Update: On Tuesday, Jan. 19, the FCC denied a request to stay the Ligado decision. “[The] order imposed stringent conditions in order to protect incumbent users, including GPS services and Pentagon operations that operate outside this band, and the technical evidence in our record continues to demonstrate that the FCC made the correct decision,” FCC...

The FCC’s C-band auction has set a new FCC auction record at the end of its first phase, grossing $80.9 billion. This far exceeds previous estimates for the auction, which were in the range of $26 billion to $51 billion. It also smashes the previous FCC auction record of $44.9 billion for the Advanced Wireless...

OneWeb has adjusted its plans for the size of its Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation down from a 48,000-satellite constellation to roughly 7,000, the company announced Wednesday.  In May, while the company was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, OneWeb asked the FCC to increase its market access for a constellation of 48,000 satellites. Now, OneWeb is recalibrating...

Airbus revealed Thursday that it has successfully completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the Skynet 6A project. The project now has permission to move into the next phase, which leads to the Critical Design Review (CDR). Airbus was awarded the Skynet 6A contract in July 2020. The contract signed with the U.K. Ministry of...

The U.S. Air Force has picked Redstone Arsenal, Alabama as the “preferred location” for U.S. Space Command’s headquarters, pending a final decision in 2023 after the completion of an environmental impact assessment. Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey said that Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations Bob Moriarty called her on the morning...

At the 13th European Space Conference on Wednesday, Gerry Collins, network and services policy expert for ESOA stated that the satellite industry needs to change its way of doing business in order to make the most of new 5G opportunities. “The satellite industry has a terrible habit of over-complicating things,” he said, and the discussion...

NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have signed an MOU to support commercial space activities. Under the MOU signed Jan. 8, the FAA and NASA have agreed to collaborate on a stable launch and reentry industry framework between the agencies’ regulations to avoid conflicting requirements and multiple sets of standards.  The two agencies have...

The FCC has granted SpaceX permission to launch ten Starlink satellites into Polar Orbit. In an FCC order issued Jan. 8, the commission granted SpaceX the ability to deploy and operate ten Starlink satellites at an altitude of 560 km and an inclination of 97.6. In April, SpaceX asked the FCC for permission to lower...

European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jan Woerner has decided to step down from his position at the end of February, a few months before the end of his term, to let successor Josef Aschbacher take the helm.  Woerner, who has served as director general since 2015, first announced in February 2020 that he would...

The U.S. Space Force-developed Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) Flight System (EFS) is to demonstrate the launch of up to 18 multi-mission national security and civil satellites from NASA‘s Landsat-9 Earth Observation (EO) satellite. Landsat-9 is slated to launch from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket this September at...