Satellite life extension and high-value salvage missions are "a solid near-term market opportunity" for emerging in-orbit servicing providers, Northern Sky Research analyst Carolyn Belle blogged Tuesday. NSR said it predicts servicing contract revenue to reach a cumulative $3 billion by 2027. It said 240 satellites are expected to reach end of life in the next decade, with 90 of them estimated to be candidates for servicing. And it said robotics opens the door to significant long-term potential in the form of fixing mal-deployed antennas and solar arrays, though those offerings will be slow to develop since satellites currently in orbit aren't designed for robotic manipulation or augmentation.

The U.S. national space strategy's emphasis on deregulation (see 1803260003) hopefully means the administration won't allow regulatory agencies to deny private actors access to space on the basis of non-self-executing treaty provisions, space lawyer Laura Montgomery blogged Monday. Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty (OST), requiring government authorization and supervision of nongovernmental activities in space, doesn't say those activities must be authorized, she said. She also said Article VI isn't self-executing, meaning it doesn't create an obligation or prohibition on the private sector unless and until Congress says it does. The Obama administration interpreted Article VI to require authorization of all nongovernmental activities in space, and the FAA indicated it could use Article VI as a means to deny a private entity access to space. But that FAA position ignored the Supreme Court's position on non-self-executing treaties, and regulatory agencies shouldn't claim the power to use the article to deny such access to space since it "would only shackle the commercial space industry," Montgomery said. Meanwhile, conforming to OST doesn't mean limits on governments should apply to private entities, since the treaty doesn't say that, she said. For example, Article II's bar on national appropriation doesn't ban private appropriation, she said.

Iridium and Speedcast have signed a deal for Speedcast to add the Iridium Certus service to its Atlas portfolio of offerings targeting the land mobile market, such as real-time vehicle tracking, internet, phone and data transfer, Iridium said Tuesday. It said the two companies already partner on global maritime services. It said testing of the Certus service, provided via the Next constellation, is underway and it will be rolled out commercially via a series of service classes.

Intelsat is seeking FCC International Bureau approval to permanently relocate its Intelsat 16 satellite to 76.2 degrees west. The company last year received special temporary authority to relocate the satellite from its licensed home at 58.1 degrees west. In an IB application Monday, it said making the relocation permanent would let it serve customers including those responding to Puerto Rico communications network damage caused by Hurricane Maria. Intelsat said DirecTV has a license to launch and operate a Ku-band satellite at 76 degrees west, but the companies reached an agreement to accommodate Intelsat 16 at 76.2 degrees west, with Intelsat taking "all reasonable steps" to eliminate any interference if any occurs.

Australian satellite IoT startup Myriota raised $15.6 million in a Series A preference share financing, with Boeing being one of the investors, satellite data services company exactEarth said Monday. ExactEarth said it also previously invested in Myriota, getting an 18 percent stake.

Hughes is backing ViaSat on urging the FCC to adopt limits on aggregate equivalent power flux-density (EPFD) limits on Ka-band non-geostationary orbit uplinks (see 1801180060), it said in a docket 16-408 FCC filing Thursday. Hughes supports ViaSat's position the agency revise Section 25.289 of rules so geostationary orbit operators have additional remedies if existing EPFD limits aren't sufficient to protect their satellite networks. Hughes agrees with ViaSat's push for allowing secondary fixed satellite service use of the 19.4-19.6 GHz and 29.1-29.25 GHz bands as long as that use is limited to individually licensed earth station communications and absent evidence that FSS use causes interference to Iridium.

Having multiple earth stations in motion sharing a channel is very different from having a single ESIM operate on that channel continuously, Iridium said in a docket 17-95 FCC filing posted Friday on a meeting with Office of Engineering and Technology staff including Chief Julius Knapp. The company said its interference concern isn't that constantly operating ESIM terminals will overload a non-geostationary orbit satellite receiver but that bursts of short-term interference that disrupt NGSO feeder links will be too frequent. That's why it's important to know the number of ESIMs operating a particular region, and their locations over time, alongside basic operating parameters, when defining realistic exclusion zones, it said. Iridium said it repeated its arguments against allowing ESIM deployment 29.25-29.3 GHz band (see 1801180052).

Boeing remains at odds with other satellite operators about how to read the Section 25.159 of FCC rules for the controlling interest standard. Satellite operators opposing Boeing's transfer of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite applications to Greg Wyler's SOM1101 argue Wyler has control over OneWeb because he's a member of OneWeb's board, but that runs against a "common sense reading" of rules, Boeing said in an International Bureau proceeding letter posted Wednesday. It said adopting opponents' read the section could lead to "ripple effects" throughout telco and satellite industries in cases where executives sit on other company boards. Boeing said its initial applications were legitimate and not filed for spectrum warehousing or speculation purposes, and the burden is on objectors to prove otherwise. Iridium, Telesat Canada, O3b and SpaceX earlier this month (see here, here, here and here) argued 25.159 said individual directors were attributable interest holders under the multiple-ownership rule and thus OneWeb Chairman Wyler holds attributable interest in that company and its NGSO systems, as well as owning SOM1101. O3b said the FCC should deny the Boeing-to-SOM1101 amendments and dismiss Boeing's NGSO system applications in question since the company has no interest in pursuing them. SOM1101 and Boeing disagree with other satellite companies over the issue of Wyler's control of OneWeb (see 1803010006).

A combination of "nimbler" low earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary smallsats alongside "highly capable" larger satellites is a flexible route to tackling shifting consumer, enterprise and government requirements, Northern Sky Research's Carolyn Belle blogged Wednesday. Commercial operators recently announced plans to go that route, including Eutelsat and startup Astranis, joining the ranks of previously announced partnerships such as Intelsat/OneWeb, Telesat's LEO, JSAT/LeoSat and Iridium/Hiber, she said.

BlackSky Global is seeking FCC International Bureau approval for a non-geostationary orbit earth exploration satellite service. In an application Tuesday, it said its initial plans are for four satellites operating in the X, S, L and UHF bands, but its constellation could expand to 60. The company has an experimental license application pending for the first satellite in its constellation, Global-1, and said it plans to seek commercial authorization for it once the test phase is complete.