Applicability of SpaceX Conditions Is Getting Resistance
A growing number of satellite operators are resisting SpaceX's urging that conditions the FCC put on its second-generation constellation should be generally applicable to all constellations.
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SpaceX's "barrage" of letters last month arguing various pending constellations or license modifications should be subject to the same conditions imposed on its second-generation constellation (see 2301180049) doesn't explain how each proposed or modified system is similarly-situated to SpaceX's, Spire Global said Friday in docket 18-313. It said SpaceX's "haste to claim unfair burden" didn't recognize that other operators "also have tedious or burdensome conditions not shared by SpaceX." It urged the commission to launch a rulemaking seeking comment on the broader applicability of the second-gen conditions and "other long-standing reporting and notifications that the Commission has imposed piecemeal across licenses and grants." The FCC and SpaceX didn't comment.
The FCC's NPRM process "is fantastic" for getting input on proposed policy, and that input on any metric or threshold helps ensure a reasonable decision, said Darren McKnight, LeoLabs senior technical fellow, backing the NPRM idea. He said some issues transcend all constellations, and thresholds and metrics for those need to be universal across operators.
Multiple operators argued the second-gen conditions aren't applicable to their systems (see 302130042). The FCC put those conditions on SpaceX "because of the unique risks presented by its enormous and unprecedented satellite constellation," New Spectrum Satellite said earlier this month.
SpaceX's blanket filing approach was procedurally odd, especially since it has the option of petitioning for a rulemaking, said space lawyer Stephen Goodman, whose clients include New Spectrum.
Some of the SpaceX second-gen constellation conditions are very reasonable, such as required coordination with NASA, said a lawyer for an NGSO operator. But many were focused on big low earth orbit constellations or SpaceX's Starlink specifically, he said. The FCC is aware of the broader issues and an NPRM approach is possible, he said. If it does, the challenge will be to not burden all operators with rules that don't necessarily apply to all of them, he said.
SpaceX is pushing the FCC to put more second-gen-like conditions on Amazon's Kuiper. In an application for review last week of Kuiper's authorization, SpaceX said the International Bureau "confusingly [and] bizarrely" didn't apply two conditions "that the full Commission had just determined were in the public interest." It urged the commission to revise the bureau order and add conditions requiring an "object-years" metric for limiting satellite failure numbers and limiting deployment and operation of the first phase of Amazon's NGSO system while deferring on the rest of it.