FCC ALLOWS UNPRECEDENTED SATELLITE MEGA-CONSTELLATION DEPLOYMENT: DOES NOT ADDRESS NEW “CRASH CLOCK” UNIVERSITY STUDY

This week the FCC granted Space Exploration Holdings, LLC (SpaceX) a major authorization to advance its second-generation Starlink satellite system.  The FCC did not address the new Crash Clock study by Princeton and other universities which validated The Balance Group’s longstanding concerns about these unprecedented and understudied deployments.  The likelihood for catastrophic cascading collisions (termed by NASA as the Kessler effect) has escalated. Such a scenario could create significant economic, security and environmental harms, including massive, long-term outages. 

The FCC granted:

• Unprecedented satellite populations in low earth orbit (LEO) shells at altitudes ranging from 340-485 km (an additional 7,500 Gen2 Starlink satellites, bringing the total to 15,000 satellites).
• Allowed overlapping satellite beams. 
• Direct-to-cell connectivity outside the United States and supplemental coverage within the U.S.
• Operational authorization across Ku-, Ka-, V-, E-, and W-band frequencies, supporting both Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) and Mobile Satellite Service (MSS).

FCC NEWS RELEASE: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-417881A1.pdf

FCC AUTHORIZATION & ORDER: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-36A1.pdf

---