U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Horan of Delaware signed off on Ligado paying AST SpaceMobile up to $200 million in breakup fees if Ligado vacates or abridges the restructuring agreement between the satellite operators. Under Ligado's Chapter 11 restructuring agreement, AST agreed to pay Ligado upfront and annually for access to Ligado's L-band spectrum, as well as for use of Ligado's satellites and ground station assets. AST would use substantially all of Ligado's SkyTerra-1 satellite capacity under the agreement. In his order Monday (docket 25-10006), Horan said the fees were "good, compelling, sufficient, and sound" and negotiated in good faith, and AST "is unwilling to remain obligated" to consummate the transaction without approval of the fee and reimbursements. According to the agreement, the fee is in recognition of AST "having expended considerable time and resources in connection with this Agreement and the negotiation thereof." Horan also approved AST being reimbursed for expenses incurred in crafting the agreement.
The FCC should consider blanket mission requests when it examines space launch frequency coordination, Virgin Galactic said in a filing posted Friday. It said it plans to launch every three days and asked that operators with high flight cadences of similar or identical profiles be allowed to submit requests that cover multiple missions. The agency is considering space launch licensing and frequency coordination procedures and data requirements (see 2501230025).
SpaceX will start beta testing its direct-to-device Starlink service in three days, CEO Elon Musk wrote Friday on X. He said last month that its inaugural D2D constellation is in orbit (see 2412060039).
The growing problem of orbital debris necessitates moving to a circular space economy that emphasizes reuse, recycling and efficient management of space resources, wrote University of Texas at Austin aerospace engineering professor Moriba Jah this week. Jah said a circular economy means designing spacecraft using materials that minimize pollution and generate less waste, repairing satellites while in orbit to extend their lives, and recycling materials from defunct satellites for use on additional missions without bringing them back to Earth. The technology enabling such an approach has yet to be developed, he added. Meanwhile, governments should incentivize the design and development of sustainable space systems, such as through extended producer responsibility laws, said Jah, who leads the university's Space Security, Safety, and Sustainability program.
The FCC Space Bureau can't ignore commission-set requirements "simply ... because SpaceX does not like them," Viasat said as it continues arguing for reconsideration of a portion of the SpaceX/T-Mobile authorization to provide supplemental coverage from space service (see 2412270017). In a docket 23-135 filing posted Wednesday, Viasat said SpaceX's reply to the recon petition ignores some of Viasat's key points, such as the SCS order is contrary to the bureau's determination last year to deny SpaceX access to parts of the 1429-2690 MHz band because they aren't available for mobile satellite service (MSS). Viasat also attacked SpaceX's arguments calling for dismissal of the recon petition since Viasat didn't previously file comments in the dockets where SpaceX requested SCS authority. It's an "inescapable fact" that the SpaceX SCS order includes band segments that weren't part of the agency's previous SCS framework order and thus can't be used for SCS service, Viasat said.
Subsurface imagery startup Lunasonde plans to launch its San Xavier non-geostationary orbit cube satellite in July, it said in an FCC Space Bureau application posted Friday. The satellite will be used to demonstrate satellite functionality and image the Earth's subsurface and ionosphere, it said. San Xavier will operate in frequencies allocated for Earth exploration-satellite service and space operation service, it said.
In-orbit services' revenue is expected to grow more than 10% annually between now and 2030, driven by increasing demand for satellite life extension, repair and debris mitigation services, space consultancy Neuco Director Laurie Scott wrote Monday. The need for life-extension services is rising as many satellites are closing in on their operational lifespans and servicing existing satellites is more cost-effective than deploying new ones, Scott added.
Umbra Lab is targeting Q4 2025 to launch four additional synthetic aperture radar earth exploration satellite service microsatellites, it told the FCC Space Bureau in an application filed Wednesday. The company said that Umbra-11, -12, -13 and -14 will replace some of the 10 Umbras that the FCC previously authorized and that were launched. Umbra said the four will have largely the same RF and orbital characteristics as the ones approved.
The U.N. should set a sustainable development goal around safeguarding low earth orbit (LEO), akin to the one it has for safeguarding the oceans, a group of researchers said. In a paper Thursday in the journal One Earth, the authors said the marine and orbital environments share similar, growing problems of plastic waste and orbital debris, respectively. Meanwhile, both operate as "global commons," adding that policy approaches to try to tackle marine waste could also be models for handling space junk. They said voluntary agreements alone haven't been enough to address plastic pollution, and LEO needs a global treaty to scale up the voluntary agreements in place to safeguard that orbit. Any such treaty must include producer and user responsibilities for satellites and related debris. Authors of the paper include faculty from the University of Plymouth's International Marine Litter Research Unit, the University of Texas at Austin and the California Institute of Technology.
The FCC Space Bureau has rejected Sateliot's application to provide a satellite-based IoT service in the 2 GHz mobile satellite service band (see 2406060057). In an order Wednesday, the bureau dismissed Sateliot's U.S. market access petition, saying the 2 GHz bands aren't available for additional MSS applications. The agency similarly has denied SpaceX use of the band for direct-to-device operations (see 2403270002).