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In a meeting with members of the FCC’s International Bureau (IB), representatives of Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) discussed the company’s third modification to its Starlink satellite internet constellation which is currently facing opposition from a host of companies. In this modification, SpaceX has requested the Commission to allow it to reduce the elevation angles of its Earth stations and altitudes of its satellites - citing reduced interference and safety improvements for the changes, respectively.
At the safety front, SpaceX has made two corrective changes to improve satellite non-maneuverability. The first of these is improving its manufacturing process for better satellite testing. The second is a software update that seeks to root out problems that cause the spacecraft to stop responding.
These changes, according to Mr. Goldman, have started to bear fruit as out of the last 723 satellites launched by SpaceX, 720 are maneuverable above injection altitude. As opposed to directly launching its satellites to their orbital altitudes, SpaceX first sends them to a lower injection altitude, following which it tests maneuverability and response and then it raises the satellites to. their orbital destinations.
The company has also started to decommission its older satellites as it reiterated an earlier argument before the FCC by stating that the lower a satellite’s altitude, the sooner it burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere following a loss of control. According to SpaceX, should it lose control over its satellites, then they should burn up in the atmosphere in between one to five years.
Finally, SpaceX’s criticism of DISH is the hardest. The company states that DISH is yet to provide any details about its own system and that the company has, “singled out SpaceX alone for its fishing expedition, even though other NGSO licensees operate with bigger beams, higher transmit power, and lower elevation angles.”
SpaceX also believes that DISH’s request for data is nothing but game-playing, outlining before the Commission that MVDDS providers have, in the past, asked SpaceX to share information about its systems with them, but after SpaceX provided the information, walked away from the agreement which required them to share details about their systems as well.
