Main Engine Cut OffBegun, The Constellation War Has
Caleb Henry, for SpaceNews:
The wave of new applications follows those that 11 companies, including Boeing, filed in November when the FCC set a deadline for any operators to come forward if they had plans to operate in the same bands that OneWeb proposed for its constellation of low-Earth-orbiting internet satellites. All of the companies that met the FCC’s March 1 deadline for V-band plans had participated in the November processing round as well.
Most companies are describing their potential use of V-band satellites as follow-ons to pre-existing plans for constellations in Ku- or Ka-band. SpaceX, for example, proposes a “VLEO,” or V-band low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of 7,518 satellites to follow the operator’s initially proposed 4,425 satellites that would function in Ka- and Ku-band. Canada-based Telesat describes its V-band LEO constellation as one that “will follow closely the design of the Ka-band LEO Constellation,” also using 117 satellites (not counting spares) as a second-generation overlay.
These numbers are getting more and more unbelievable by the day.
The Intelsat-OneWeb merger is very interesting to follow, too. Hot on the heels of the big investment OneWeb received back in December, the merger gives them more resources, knowledge, experience, and a customer-base. That’s a pretty good mixture.