SpaceX was by far the busiest space launch provider in Q1, with 21 launches putting up 763 spacecraft, per BryceTech Tuesday. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. did 12 launches in the quarter, putting up 31 spacecraft, it said, and the Indian Space Research Organisation did two launches but put up 39 spacecraft. By country, U.S. launch providers did 27 launches in the quarter, while Chinese launchers did 14, it said. Of the 869 spacecraft launched in Q1 worldwide, 81% were communications satellites -- mostly SpaceX Starlink satellites, it said.

Low earth orbit (LEO) should fall under the National Environmental Policy Act's scope, said Michael Runnels, California State University business law assistant professor, in a Journal of Air Law and Commerce article last week. He urged changes to federal law to include the orbital environment under NEPA's scope, which in turn would give the FCC clear Congressional authorization to regulate orbital debris. He said the FCC not substantively enforcing NEPA in LEO creates a "regulatory void" that could lead to more orbital debris. Needing changes are Title 42, regarding public health, and Title 47, on the structure and duties of the FCC, he said.

With the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector having received answers to questions it had about Eutelsat's proposed takeover of OneWeb, the Committee resumed its review of the deal, it told the FCC Space Bureau Monday. It said the 120-day review period is scheduled to end Aug. 14. Eutelsat/OneWeb was announced in July (see 2207250041).

Any FCC waiver letting Amazon's Kuiper start operations before a needed ITU finding (see 2303300001) should be predicated on the company sharing equivalent power flux density (EPFD) output files produced by the ITUs compliance software, SES/O3b told the Space Bureau Monday. Kuiper committed to making available input data for ITU evaluation of EPFD compliance, but both input and output files are needed to confirm EPFD compliance, they said. Amazon is trying "to cherry pick conditions for itself" by arguing it should be subject to only some of the conditions the FCC placed on SpaceX's second-generation Starlink constellation, SpaceX said .

All the C-band clearing actions necessary to satisfy the Phase II relocation deadline are done, Telesat said Thursday in docket 18-122, filing its accelerated relocation certification. Thursday was the first day C-band satellite operators could file their Phase II certifications under procedures the FCC Wireless Bureau issued last month (see 2305150039). Telesat's initial plan had been to do both Phase I and Phase II ahead of the Phase I December 2021 deadline, but more Phase II clearance work that was identified delayed that timing, the company said in an accompanying update to its transition plan.

Citing unavoidable factors, including weather, for the 12-day delay of the ViaSat-3 launch, Viasat asked the FCC Space Bureau for a one-month extension of its milestone deadline to June 30. In an application posted Thursday, Viasat said it made "significant progress" in on-station deployment of the Ka-band geostationary orbit satellite, but the process isn't complete and it hasn't started commercial operations. ViaSat-3 launched at the end of April (see 2305010013).

Amazon's Kuiper and Iridium reached a coordination agreement for use of the 19.3-19.7 GHz and 29.1-29.5 GHz bands, which was a condition on deployment of the Kuiper constellation, the companies told the FCC Space Bureau this week.

Viasat has closed on its Inmarsat purchase, it said Wednesday. The $7.3 billion deal was announced in late 2021 (see 2111080038). It said New Viasat's corporate headquarters will continue to be in Carlsbad, California, with its international business headquarters to be in London.

Concerns raised about SpaceX/T-Mobile joint efforts for mobile supplemental coverage from space (see 2305190057) "rely on either misinterpretations of Commission rules or fundamentally flawed technical 'studies,'" SpaceX said Wednesday in docket 23-135. T-Mobile also dismissed criticisms. Citing out-of-band emissions concerns, SpaceX said it and T-Mobile signed a spectrum manager lease arrangement and agreed to technical limits consistent with rules for PCS G Block spectrum, "even when those rules are more restrictive than comparable satellite rules that could be applied instead." T-Mobile said there's no need for demonstrations on potential interference since the consumer handsets communicating with SpaceX will be the same ones used now with its terrestrial wireless network. It said there also is no basis for requiring either company to demonstrate the potential effect of the SCS service on T-Mobile's network since the wireless carrier "has the discretion, so long as it complies with all relevant rules, to optimize its network configuration to operate in harmony with SpaceX." Both companies said criticism that they requested either too many or too few waivers from the FCC are baseless. TerreStar Solutions, which plans to begin trialing a non-terrestrial two-way messaging service and then offer SCS to Canadians, said the SpaceX/T-Mobile SCS plan raises interference risks for incumbent mobile satellite service (MSS) operators like it. TerreStar said SCS approaches like SpaceX/T-Mobile, which require frequency use waivers, could reduce the amount of spectrum available for terrestrial operations. It said the FCC should instead focus on supporting the use of existing MSS allocations by licensed MSS operators to provide SCS services.

The International Space Station maneuvered twice in a week to avoid potential orbital debris collisions, NASA said Wednesday. The first episode was March 6 to avoid a projected collision with an Argentinian earth observation satellite, and the second was March 14 to avoid debris from Russia's November 2021 anti-satellite test. NASA said they were ISS' 34th and 35th collision avoidance maneuvers against tracked objects since 1999.