SpaceX asks FCC to end third-party coordination for launch spectrum
SpaceX · Boeing · Lockheed Martin
SpaceX wants the FCC to drop third-party review that coordinates launch spectrum with aerospace, defense and medical users.
what happened
SpaceX and other commercial launch companies are asking the FCC to eliminate the Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council (AFTRCC), the third-party body that currently coordinates shared spectrum bands used during rocket launches and by aerospace companies for aircraft and weapons testing, per TipRanks and The Next Web. SpaceX argues the current process, which AFTRCC says requires 80 days of advance review, is too slow for the launch cadence the industry is targeting, and wants users to move to self-coordination instead; SpaceX has called opponents "legacy contractors attempting to maintain a veto over more advanced" operators, per The Next Web. Boeing and Lockheed Martin oppose the change, warning that launch-related interference could disrupt data transmission during flight tests involving sensitive defense technology, and the Aerospace Industries Association said losing spectrum access at the wrong moment could have a "significant impact" on R&D; RTX has also opposed it. GE HealthCare said it has previously struggled to reach spectrum-sharing terms with SpaceX to avoid disrupting wireless hospital patient-monitoring systems, and wireless-microphone users warned of effects on broadcasts of major sporting events, per TipRanks. The European Commission is moving the opposite way, ringfencing two-thirds of its 2 GHz mobile-satellite band for European operators and leaving Starlink and Amazon's Kuiper to compete for the remaining third, per The Next Web.
why it matters
A win would let SpaceX and other launch providers schedule spectrum access in days rather than months, a real constraint as SpaceX targets launch cadence as high as 10,000 rockets a year to support ambitions including space-based data centers, per 10/12 Industry Report; but the breadth of opposition, from defense primes to hospital equipment makers to live sports broadcasters, signals the FCC faces a genuinely contested record before it can rule, not a rubber-stamp proceeding, while Europe's move to ringfence spectrum for its own operators shows regulators elsewhere taking the opposite approach to the same scarce bands.