The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authorized Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build and launch 7,500 second-generation Starlink (Gen2) satellites.
However, the FCC only ‘partial’ level SpaceX Gen2 Non-Geostationary Orbiter Satellite (NGSO) Launch Right: SpaceX has registered to launch 29,988 Gen2 satellites. According to the FCC, SpaceX has launched more than 3,500 Gen1 Starlink satellites as of October 2022.
7,500 new satellites are approved to operate at altitudes of 525, 530 and 535 km and inclinations of 53, 43 and 33 degrees respectively, using frequencies in Ku– and ka-band, FCC notes.
FCC postpones review of SpaceX’s application for use electronic band frequency and beacon tracking. The commission also said it had reduced the number of authorized Gen2 Starlink satellites in part due to orbital debris and space safety issues.
“To address concerns about orbital debris and space safety, we limit this funding to only 7,500 satellites, operating at certain altitudes, and note that SpaceX has committed to request to modify its previously issued license for V-band operations so that it will incorporate that V-band operations into its Starlink Gen2 system, instead of operating a separate in-band system V.
“This means that our action today does not increase the total number of satellites that SpaceX is authorized to deploy and, in fact, it slightly reduces the total number of satellites that SpaceX may have deployed. otherwise,” the FCC noted in its decision.
The FCC also requires SpaceX to report the mitigation measures it has taken to avoid collisions in space, as well as instructing the company to work with NASA to ensure launch windows continue to be available and paused. deploy new satellites if the satellite error exceeds a certain threshold.
SpaceX’s app has drawn protests from space stakeholders including SES Americom and O3b, Viasat, NASA and the National Science Foundation, as well as Amazon’s Kuiper. The FCC passed some of them as conditions on SpaceX, but dismissed a request to ‘reject or deny’ the application from Dish Network Corporation.
In August, Dish and Viasat lost their lawsuit against the FCC over its decision in April 2021 to allow SpaceX to fly 2,824 Starlink satellites at a range of 540 to 570 km instead of the original 1,110-1,325 km. Like Ars Technica reported at the timeThe United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed their objection and support the decision of the FCC.
Meanwhile, Amazon in October announced it is building a 172,000 square foot satellite manufacturing facility in Washington for Kuiper. It plans to launch 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit and hopes to do so by the fourth quarter of 2022. However, it now says it will launch of two prototype satellites in early 2023. The first production Kuiper satellites will launch later aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. It will then use ULA’s Vulcan rocket along with Newer Heavy Missile from Arianespace and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket company.
SpaceX filed a Gen2 Starlink application in May 2020 with a requirement to operate 30,000 satellites at altitudes between 328 and 614 kilometers from Earth.
SpaceX’s current plan is to operate 29,988 Generation 2 satellites at altitudes between 340 km and 614 km, with about two-thirds or 19,440 satellites deployed at altitudes between 340 km and 360 km – below the Station The International Space Station (ISS). About a third, or 10,080, of the new Starlink satellites will be deployed at an altitude of between 525 km and 535 km – above the ISS and below SpaceX’s constellation of Starlink Gen1.
More than 468 more satellites will be deployed in opposite directions in ‘shells’ centered at 604 km and 614 km — above the Gen1 satellites.
FCC in August rejected Starlink’s $885 million bid for rural broadband fundswith the commissioner deeming it a nascent technology and raising concerns about its reduced download speeds.
