SpaceX drops Starlink plan Amazon opposed, but fight isn’t over

SpaceX scrapped a Starlink plan that Amazon opposed in a high-profile Federal Communications Commission battle last year and wants to launch its second-generation broadband satellites from March. But the dispute isn’t over, as Amazon says SpaceX’s latest filing “raises a number of issues that require analysis and potential response” and has asked the FCC for a month’s delay before comment. are due.

In August 2021, Amazon satellite broadband subsidiary Kuiper Systems objected to Starlink offering “two different configurations for the nearly 30,000 satellites in its Gen2 system, each arranging those satellites according to orbital parameters very different”. Amazon said offering “two mutually exclusive configurations” violates an FCC rule and would force competitors to work twice as hard to assess the potential for interference.

SpaceX said it offered two possible configurations in case its preferred configuration doesn’t work. The FCC to reign does not specifically prohibit SpaceX’s approach, but does state that an application will be rejected if it “is defective with respect to completeness of response to questions, presentations of information, internal inconsistencies, execution or other matters of a formal nature”.

Starlink abandons the second configuration

This is now a moot point because SpaceX told the FCC on Friday that he abandons the alternate configuration, saying that it is no longer needed. The SpaceX folder, which was highlighted by a PCMag article, says:

As SpaceX explained in its amendment, it provided information on an alternate configuration for its Gen2 system to accommodate development uncertainty, given the long lead times often required for Commission review of applications. . SpaceX also clarified that it does not intend to operate both configurations and will let the Commission know which configuration it will use as development becomes more certain. Much has changed in the meantime, and SpaceX has exceeded its own expectations in the pace of development of its Gen2 satellites and Starship launch vehicle. Accordingly, SpaceX hereby notifies the Commission that it will continue with Configuration 1 and discontinue Configuration 2 proposed in the Amendment.

The configuration chosen by SpaceX includes 29,988 satellites at altitudes ranging from 340 km to 614 km. SpaceX said it still expects the second-generation satellites to be ready for launch “as early as March 2022, pending regulatory approval.” The company’s new filing also answered questions the FCC sent SpaceX in a Letter of December 23.

While SpaceX was still seeking approval for the two-configuration approach, he told the FCC that Amazon was trying to delay competitors “to compensate for Amazon’s inability to make progress on its own.” Amazon responded by telling the FCC that “the conduct of SpaceX and other Musk-led companies makes their point clear: rules are for others, and those who insist or even simply demand compliance deserve derision and ad hominem attacks.” SpaceX responded to this by calling Amazon’s protest an irrelevant “rant.”

Amazon asks for 30 days

The FCC judge SpaceX’s request for 30,000 satellites to be “acceptable for filing” on December 23. There is a 30-day comment period that expires January 24.

Monday, Amazon asked the FCC for a 30-day extension to the deadline for filing responses to SpaceX’s request to deploy 30,000 satellites. Amazon noted that SpaceX’s recent filing came in response to the FCC’s request “for clarification on several aspects of the SpaceX Amendment, including the relationship between the Gen2 system and SpaceX’s first-generation system, the applicability of Section 25.159 Commission rules, minimum elevation angle, launch plans, deployment, altitude, expected reliability and in-orbit lifetime.”

“SpaceX’s January 7 response to these questions raises a number of issues that require analysis and potential response, and Amazon and other parties will need sufficient time to review and analyze SpaceX’s responses to allow a fuller discussion of the issues pending before the Commission,” Amazon told the FCC. Amazon also stated that “assessing a constellation of this unprecedented scale will involve complex and novel issues.

Updated Friday, January 14 at 12:25 a.m. ET: The FCC granted Amazon’s request for an extension, but not for the full 30 days. The FCC has extended the comment deadline from January 24 to February 8.

Kuiper has FCC approval to launch 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit, but its current satellite launch schedule puts the Amazon project nearly four years behind Starlink.