The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has filed paperwork with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for the operation of 30,000 small satellites in low-Earth orbits.
ITU Chief of Space Services Alexandre Vallet confirmed to CNET that the FCC had submitted 20 filings of 1,500 satellites apiece in various low Earth orbits between 204 miles (328 kilometers) and 360 miles (579 kilometers) in altitude.
SpaceX sent 60 Starlink satellites into orbit in May this year and plans on sending 60 more up later this month. So the commercial space company still has a ways to go to reach the 12,000 mark previously approved by the FCC. If the math sounds ridiculously out of whack, you’re right. That comes to a total of 42,000 satellites SpaceX wants to put into orbit around the planet.
Early planning and filings necessary
The ITU is an arm of the United Nations that allocates global spectrum and satellite orbits to help keep our complex communication networks running smoothly. This coordination is supposed to make sure satellite operators don’t run into signal interference and avoid spectrum hogging.
A country’s regulators are the only ones that can submit a filing on behalf of their country’s satellite operators. The filings have to contain details about frequency usage, proposed orbital altitudes, and the number of satellites it desires. As for SpaceX, the filings do not contain any information on when it plans to launch the satellites or the type of launch vehicle they plan to use.
The filings are a very early step in preparation for launching communication satellites. Quite often, they are made years prior to the actual launch vehicle being built, according to Space News. SpaceX will need to disclose more details about its constellation when applying with the FCC for access to the U.S. market to offer broadband services – just as it did with the 12,000-satellite constellation it began launching in May.
The seven-year deadline rule
Once a filing is approved, it triggers a seven-year deadline. This means the satellite operator, in this case, SpaceX, must launch at least one satellite with its requested frequencies and operate it for 90 days. This “bring into use” procedure allows spectrum rights to be assigned’
Once those spectrum rights are published, other operators must design their systems to avoid interference with the new spectrum operator. Failure to accomplish the above steps opens the spectrum rights up again. The MIT Technical Review suggests that SpaceX may also be trying to get ahead of the competition by drowning the ITU in more paperwork.
This could be because the ITU is expected to add more stringent spectrum reservation rules for megaconstellation ventures during the upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference, which takes place from Oct. 28 to Nov. 22 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Space News is also reporting that Tim Farrar, a telecom analyst critical of SpaceX, tweeted that he was doubtful the ITU will be able to review such big filings in a timely manner and that SpaceX’s goal instead is to “drown the ITU in studies” while proceeding with its constellation.
Yes, 42,000 communication satellites are hard to swallow, especially with the amount of “space junk” we already have floating around above. According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, as of April 2019, approximately 8,500 satellites, probes, landers, crewed spacecraft, cargo craft, and space station flight elements have been launched into Earth orbit or beyond since 1957 when the first satellite – Sputnik launched.
