WASHINGTON: A US appeals court upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to approve a plan to deploy certain Starlink satellites in a lower Earth orbit than initially envisaged on Friday, supporting SpaceX plans to offer space-based broadband internet.
In 2021, the FCC gave Elon Musk’s SpaceX permission to launch 2,824 satellites at a lower orbit to bring high-speed broadband internet to individuals who don’t currently have access to it. Viasat Inc. and DISH Network Corp., rivals, contested the FCC’s decision.
The decision, according to Viasat, “is a setback for both space safety and environmental conservation,” the satellite company stated on Friday.The business added that negative effects that might have otherwise persisted for decades or possibly centuries may have been prevented if the court had ordered the FCC to address “complex concerns regarding deployment of mega-constellations in (low-earth orbit)”.
According to Viasat, the SpaceX deployment plan is extensive; “by way of comparison, approximately 10,000 satellites, overall, have been launched in all of human history,” the company said in a court filing. Viasat only has one satellite that flies close to SpaceX’s constellation, according to the court decision, which also stated that “This hypothesis of injury is simply too speculative.”
