Satellite Bills Likely to Raise Some Questions, Being Reintroduced in Multiyear Process
House Commerce Committee leaders' two draft bills to revamp the FCC's low earth orbit (LEO) satellite licensing rules (see 2202110064) raise questions such as how the measures would affect agency resources and the potential impact on spectrum availability, industry experts told us. Many in the satellite industry don't expect Congress to make much progress in advancing the bills this year and expect development of the proposals to be a multiyear effort.
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The bills -- the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act and the Secure Space Act -- cover such issues as license processing timelines and foreign ownership rules. The Secure Space Act would bar the FCC from granting licenses to foreign entities the FCC deems a national security or supply chain risk under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. STSA would require the FCC to mandate limits on the amount of debris a licensed satellite plans to release, and issue rules on orbital parameters. The bill would set a one-year timeline for acting on a non-geostationary orbit system application and a 180-day deadline for a license renewal or modification application. It would require spectrum sharing and would sunset existing processing round interference protections by Dec. 31, 2026. The sunset provision echoes the spectrum sharing NPRM the agency adopted 4-0 in December (see 2112140062). Kuiper petitioned the FCC in 2020 for a similar change to its non-geostationary orbit processing round rules (see 2007100023).
The legislation is long overdue given the issues the subpanel identified during a July hearing on mitigating orbital debris, said Senate Commerce Space Subcommittee Chairman John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., in an interview. “Hopefully, that will be a priority this year” given the current state of orbital debris, including the Russians “sending up a missile to blow up one of their satellites just to demonstrate they could do it.” Some witnesses at the July hearing asked the FCC to modify its satellite licensing rules to require that any company that serves the U.S. market must comply with U.S. orbital debris rules (see 2107220063).
“I’ve had a couple discussions” with House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., about how to proceed, Hickenlooper said. “They come at this issue from a little bit different perspective than we do, but I think there’s a lot of common ground. I think everybody understands that we have a sense of urgency” about addressing the orbital debris situation, including how public-private partnerships would factor into a legislative solution. “There’ll be a number of different bills,” but “we’ve got to get all points of view distilled” before filing any additional measures, so they don’t result in any “unintended consequences,” he said.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us discussions on orbital debris legislation remain “at the subcommittee level” at this point, but she believes it’s an issue lawmakers need to address. Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., told us he’s not aware of any proposed legislation percolating on the Senate side on orbital debris, but said it remains a “hot issue.”
The FCC "need[s] to take a fresh look from top to bottom at our satellite licensing processes" and there could be ways to speed up license application processing, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said during a Friday call with reporters. She believes existing rules "were built for another era of satellite technology, and we need to make substantive changes." Rosenworcel didn't elaborate.
The draft bills don't address a lack of space traffic management rules, said Butzel Long satellite lawyer Steve Goodman: STSA's sunset provision could considerably change the economics of satellite operators, making it tougher to figure out whether to invest in a constellation when issues like how much capacity it will have available are in flux. The agency has station-keeping rules on geostationary satellites' staying in their orbital slots, but nothing is similar for LEOs, and the ability of operators to always stay within tight, defined orbital parameters isn't clear, he said.
Drexel University associate professor Ajmal Yousuff, who teaches orbital mechanics, said it would be relatively easy for operators to keep a LEO satellite within orbital parameters required by the FCC as long as the satellite has active maneuverability capabilities. It's already common for atmospheric effects or cosmic radiation to sometimes affect a satellite's orbit and for maneuvers to be used in response, he said.
Many operators assume House Commerce leaders will formally file the bills regardless of whether the Republicans or Democrats win a majority in the chamber in the November elections, a satellite industry official said. Many are happy with the proposed license processing timelines because they could drive the FCC to focus on the most important aspects of applications rather than get into the weeds with lesser issues, the official said. A lawyer with satellite clients said the FCC could be hampered in efforts to speed up processing unless it has more resources.