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FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites
Back in January, the FCC pulled permission from Silicon Valley startup Swarm Technologies to launch four satellites into space after what it says was an "apparent unauthorized launch." IEEE Spectrum reports that the unauthorized launch consisted of four experimental satellites that the FCC had decided were too small to be noticed in space -- and hence pose an unacceptable risk of collision -- but which the company may have launched anyway, using a rocket based in India. The federal regulator has since issued a letter to Swarm revoking its authorization for a follow-up mission to launch four new, larger versions of its "SpaceBee" satellites. From the report: Swarm was founded in 2016 by one engineer who developed a spacecraft concept for Google and another who sold his previous company to Apple. The SpaceBees were built as technology demonstrators for a new space-based Internet of Things communications network. Swarm believes its network could enable satellite communications for orders of magnitude less cost than existing options. It envisages the worldwide tracking of ships and cars, new agricultural technologies, and low cost connectivity for humanitarian efforts anywhere in the world. The four SpaceBees would be the first practical demonstration of Swarm's prototype hardware and cutting-edge algorithms, swapping data with ground stations for up to eight years.
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The FCC told the startup that the agency would assess "the impact of the applicant's apparent unauthorized launch and operation of four satellites... on its qualifications to be a Commission licensee." If Swarm cannot convince the FCC otherwise, the startup could lose permission to build its revolutionary network before the wider world even knows the company exists. An unauthorized launch would also call into question the ability of secondary satellite "ride-share" companies and foreign launch providers to comply with U.S. space regulations.
[...]
The FCC told the startup that the agency would assess "the impact of the applicant's apparent unauthorized launch and operation of four satellites... on its qualifications to be a Commission licensee." If Swarm cannot convince the FCC otherwise, the startup could lose permission to build its revolutionary network before the wider world even knows the company exists. An unauthorized launch would also call into question the ability of secondary satellite "ride-share" companies and foreign launch providers to comply with U.S. space regulations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Darth Pai does not like it when big telecom's interests are threatened. Your tiny satellites, designed to burn up in the atmosphere, pose a significant risk of colliding with established interests. As such, we refused your launch request, then you went over his helmet, and how he he will crush your balls, pitiful startup weaklings.
Aside from the fact that the satellite may have had radios on them, Not sure where the FCC has any authority over a satellite launched from India. Also not sure why the FCC has any say in how big or small a satellite can be?
If they are to small to be noticed then in increases the chances that they could collide with something else and a collision with anything in space is devistating for both things. Could take out any other satellite or even risk astronauts lives.
It would take less than a week to move the business officially out of the US. The FCC can literally suck it. They are a useless bureaucracy that does nothing but protect incumbent monopolies. The best thing a hardware company can do to accelerate their development and lower their costs is leave the FCC in the dust.
Unless, of course, they want to sell their product in the USA.
well if they cant sell it they are free to take us to court or complain to wto.
but on the other hand... there is LOADS of people outside the us to and we all have money!
Making them smaller.. increases the chances of collision? Are you certain about that?
I thought space radar was capable of keeping track of things as small as flecks of paint. How can any satellite be too small for it?
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
"Oh sh*t, not that! No, anything but that!!!!! Wooooooooaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!" Everybody knows I like to have coffee when I watch radar, right?
Ah, the traditional anticompetitive US spaceflight practices again. ;)
Ezekiel 23:20
I expect a lot more plans for micro-satellites going forward, e.g. with the low-cost 3D-printed rocket company on New Zealand, plus generally lower cost to orbit with new technologies like SpaceX Falcon - so there is probably a need for further international regulation in that area. Both how things go up, how they stay there, and what gets to go up. I don't really know that market, but I wouldn't be surprised if this has not been properly dealt with.
That being said, I would expect part of the solution could involve (a) something similar to transponders in aviation industry so that 'detection' is not a function only of size, (b) some low-mass low-cost technology to increase the satellites' radar signature, and (c) some international system for pro-actively registering satellites' orbits and orbital changes, instead of only relying on everything being tracked.
Depends on if their product has any FCC based implications at all. If the satellites are used over the USA, but the receivers elsewhere get the data then the FCC can go pound sand.
that was 50 years ago.....
Good-bye
They'll get a subsidiary here to sell it through. Problem solved. Also companies can buy stuff from foreign companies.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
The US has a duty and authority under the Outer Space Treaty to regulate their citizens to ensure continued access to space for all. Since Swarm Technologies is a US company, it falls under this jurisdiction. India is also a signatory to the treaty and shouldn't have launched this payload if the US didn't approve it. From the wiki article:
Enigma
Our pet company SpaceX gets supremacy in this industry no matter what (it's fair though, because it's a free market, trust us (don't forget to pay your federal income taxes (: ))
Or more accurately, your orbit needs to intersect its orbit, which is a far larger set of orbits that allow for collisions. Every time you pass through the intersection on your orbit, it will be at a slightly different place in its own orbit, and sooner or later you will collide.
Orbits also don't remain constant - interaction with the magnetosphere, solar wind, gravitational anomalies, trace atmosphere fluctuations, etc. all chaotically manipulate everything's path so that nothing ever stays in the orbit where you left it. You you have to actively track everything to keep track of where it really is.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
"Not clear what the summary is trying to say."
It means to say India doesn't give a flying shit about what the FCC has to say over the satellites it sends to space.
That company will just move its headquarters to Mumbai and the FCC can't do anything about it.
As long as the owner of the satellite is a US company, then they are subject to the US licensing laws. If Swarm wishes to relocate to, say, South Sudan, which probably doesn't have a well developed regulatory environment, then they can get a South Sudanese radio license. And operate from South Sudan, have their corporate headquarters in South Sudan, etc.
Needs a license to do what? Sit around while their satellites orbit? If they revoke the license, do the satellites have to stop orbiting immediately?
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
umm... how does this help the US technology scene? If India gave go ahead, and they launched from India, what is the issue? if they get complaints about operating in India, wouldn't they just move to another country? I mean Vancouver is less than 2 hrs from California, if they want to be "close".
Yes. Which would you have a better chance of detecting and avoiding: a car driving towards you at 40mph, or an arrow fired at you at 40mph?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
An unauthorized launch would also call into question the ability of secondary satellite "ride-share" companies and foreign launch providers to comply with U.S. space regulations
Um, who the fuck died and made the US government king of the whole fucking world, let alone gave it the power to "regulate" space?!? Has anyone else on Earth claimed the entire rest of the cosmos yet? Because if not, I, Hallux Fucking Sinister, (yes, that IS in fact what the "F" stands for,) hereby lay claim to all of the cosmos, all universes past, present, and future, as sole owner and god-king, including any multiverse or polyverse(s) or omniverse(s), etc... This unavoidably includes all regions located within my new domains and dominions, including the planet known as (among other things,) the Earth. I therefore own all of you, puny little humans. In my magnanimity, I hereby grant to my measly little subjects, general rights to exist, to have mass, and to occupy space, subject to the following condition, that no one may deny any OTHER one the same right, to exist, or to have mass, and occupy space, this right being throughout my domains and dominions. I require no special tribute or acknowledgement, because I, (unlike certain shitheads with ridiculous haircuts,) do not crave constant attention, like a petulant, tantrum-throwing child.
HOWEVER, you, by availing yourself of this right I grant today, indemnify me against any and all harms that may befall you whatsoever, on behalf of not only yourselves, but your heirs, assignee(s), etc., throughout the universe of time and space. The universe can be a dangerous and uncertain place, and I don't want to get sued if you stumble around in it, unseeing, and stub your toe on a black hole, or something.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
The relative velocities of objects in orbit can also be quite high. A typical low Earth orbit satellite has an altitude of less than 1200 miles, and a velocity of roughly 18,000 miles/hour. A velocity difference of even one tenth of one percent means an impact speed of 18 miles/hour. That may be survivable, but it will damage both. It will also change the orbit of both, in what is essentially a random direction. It's also likely to change the orbit of the smaller object much more than that of the larger object,
Also, most LEO trajectories are similar. They're on a rough plane around the equator, as low as possible, because different orbits and higher altitudes cost much more fuel to achieve. At their typical orbital speed of 18,000 miles/hour and altitudes , they're sweeping through surprisingly large amounts of space throughout their lifetime. And as their orbits degrade, LEO satellites in general _do not carry a lot of fuel_, Typical launch costs today are roughly $50,000/pound. So armor for spacecraft, or fuel and rockets to change orbit after launch, are prohibitively expensive.
LEO is also becoming prohibitively cluttered. NASA and other space agencies are doing their limited best to control launches and to track objects to avoid collisions, but all LEO satellites have their orbits degrade over time, and that degradation is not completely predictable. The smaller the object, the more difficult it is to track as its orbit degrades.
Clear option is to get up a firm in India, have it buy the US company run it as a subsidiary. Voila! No more US company to regulate. Have the main Indian company do the launch, FCC and FAA can go fly a kite if the Indian authorities approve.
Yep.
The only problem is if your target market is the US, and you need FCC approval to sell your services there. Of course, there are 6.7 billion other people to market to, so maybe the US is really irrelevant.
On the other hand, the FCC has openly stated it doesn't give a damn about treaties, obligations or laws, and can't be f'ed to regulate. Once they decided that was to be their firm policy, they lost the right to regulate.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
But the US could then file a grievance regarding India the UN under the consultation clause, which was put into place because of the abovementioned space needles:
Enigma
Unfortunately, the US has a bunch of idiot business owners and managers who skirt regulators all the time, without considering the consequences of their actions. Some costing lives, some costing major litigation. This isn't saying these other countries don't either, but we should be better, considering the rising trend of this.
Wait a minute - I thought deregulation was Ajit Pai's policy!
Will somebody PLEASE get this idiot out of government?! PLEASE?!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.