The 2,860 small satellites launched in 2023 represented 97% of all satellites launched last year, BryceTech said Thursday. Smallsats accounted for the same percentage of satellites launched in 2022, it said. Communications accounted for 79% of the smallsats, with another 13% being remote sensing, it said. There were 267 different operators of the 2,860, up from 212 different operators for the smallsats launched in 2022, it said. Of the 221 orbital launches worldwide last year, 164 were for smallsats, it said. Bryce Tech found smallsats -- traditionally 1,200 kilograms or fewer -- are growing, with second-generation Starlinks being larger than first-generation designs. Meanwhile, Planet, Capella and Iridium next-gen satellites are all bigger than what they're replacing.

Facing supply chain woes such as component shortages, satellite manufacturers and launch companies are building direct relationships with suppliers and using acquisitions to mitigate those disruptions, Analysys Mason analyst David Oni wrote Thursday. Oni said satellite-makers and launch companies need to diversify their supplier bases so they don't rely on a single source and aren't as vulnerable to geopolitical risks and chip shortages. He said launchers should collaborate with satellite manufacturers to develop modular satellite architectures with standardized interfaces, making in-orbit repairs and upgrades using readily available components easier.

Iridium doesn't foresee having to launch additional satellites until the latter half of the 2030s. In a call with analysts Thursday where the company announced its Q1 financial results, CEO Matt Desch said Iridium doesn't anticipate making any spending on a next-generation satellite constellation this decade and will ramp up that spending slowly after 2030. The company said Q1 revenues were $203.9 million, down slightly from $205.3 million in Q1 2023.

Impulse Space hopes it can launch its non-geostationary orbit Impulse-2 orbital transfer vehicle as soon as October, it said in an FCC Space Bureau application posted Thursday. It's seeking approval to operate Impulse-2 as a host of experimental payloads and to demonstrate on-orbit maneuvering capabilities. Impulse said Impulse-2 would be "a steppingstone toward creating an orbit transfer vehicle that will ... be capable of rendezvousing and lowering the orbit of or de-orbiting harmful orbital debris."

A third party's petition that reinstates Spectrum Five's attempt to get a pair of Intelsat satellites' FCC licenses revoked is a private contractual dispute between petitioner BIU and SF, the full commission said in an opinion and order released Thursday. As such, it's better that a court, not the FCC, handle the situation, the opinion and order said. The docket 20-399 order dismissed BIU's application for review seeking to undo an Enforcement Bureau rejection of a BIU petition to have the SF complaint alleging license term violations by Intelsat reinstated (see 2311150031).

Space situational awareness in the future will be a global, coordinated effort with a network of national or regional hubs providing spacecraft operators with SSA information and services, Commerce's Office of Space Commerce said Monday. That kind of coordination "also lays the foundation for future Space Traffic Coordination efforts," as space operators will need consistent information about the likelihood of possible conjunctions, it said. "Recognizing that space requires truly global cooperation, we will also seek to open lines of communication with nations operating SSA systems that have not traditionally coordinated their efforts with the United States." it said.

The value of the global space economy could more than triple by 2035, from $630 billion in 2023 to $1.8 trillion 11 years from now, according to a World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Co. report Monday. It said five industries -- supply chain and transportation; food and beverage; state-sponsored defense; retail, consumer goods and lifestyle; and digital communications -- will generate more than 60% of that increase. In addition, it said space's prevalence in daily life will grow due to decreasing launch costs, increased technological capabilities of satellites and broad investment in the space realm. Like growth expected in the semiconductor and global payments industries, the world being more connected, mobile and informed is powering space's growth, it said.

Space consultancies Euroconsult and SpaceTec Partners have combined, with the new firm called Novaspace, it posted Friday on X. "By combining Euroconsult’s strategic vision with SpaceTec Partners’ management consulting heritage, we have a unique value proposition for the space sector,” said Pacome Revillon, Euroconsult CEO who now is Novaspace CEO.

ITU member states at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference were uninterested in studying the 12.7-13.25 GHz band for international mobile telecommunications, and instead adopted provisions to expand satellite operations there, Intelsat told FCC staffers, according to a docket 22-352 filing Friday. With the 12.7 GHz band intended to provide equitable access to geostationary orbit for ITU member states, any FCC action allowing terrestrial mobile use of the band "would not be aligned with international use and would lack the benefits of international harmonization," Intelsat told representatives of the Wireless and Space bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology.

Pointing to the FCC denying SpaceX permission for direct-to-device operations in the 2 GHz band (see 2403270002), Sateliot in a Space Bureau filing posted Thursday argued that its pending petition for U.S. market access shouldn't be subject to similar dismissal. Sateliot has requested FCC OK for its proposed narrowband constellation of 10 small satellites operating in the 2 GHz band that would provide IoT applications on a wholesale basis in areas where partner mobile network operators lack terrestrial coverage. In an amendment to its pending petition, Sateliot said the FCC's 2010 decision to restrict additional mobile satellite service (MSS) access to the 2 GHz band was reasonable then but didn't foresee adoption of the agency's smallsat rules, which are based on compatibility with existing and future operations. It said the agency also didn't foresee standards-based, multiband IoT equipment compatible with terrestrial operations. Given those changed circumstances, the FCC should consider a waiver on the outdated restriction of additional MSS operations in the 2 GHz band, Sateliot said. Commission rules require that smallsat systems are compatible with existing operations and not constrain additional access to the spectrum, it said. Sateliot said it complies with those requirements due to its limited constellation size, its provision of connectivity only in the absence of MNO terrestrial coverage, and its use of standards-based IoT terminals compatible with terrestrial operations.