Quartz By Tim Fernholz 6/16/2022
Welcome to Quartz’s newsletter on the economic possibilities of the extraterrestrial sphere. Please forward widely, and let me know what you think. This week: SpaceX flips on Amazon, rocket surveillance from space, and the future of satellite repair.
There was big regulatory news in space this week, and it wasn’t about SpaceX’s plans to launch its next-generation rocket from Boca Chica, Texas.
SpaceX and OneWeb, whose satellite networks compete to sell broadband internet to users on Earth, announced a surprise détente in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees communications satellites.
The two companies said that after years of comically hyperbolic allegations about the dangers of each other’s spacecraft, they decided both their current satellites and next generation systems will work fine together, don’t worry about it.
Several experts who could not speak on the record because of their work on these two projects said this surprising agreement is driven by the companies’ fear of Kuiper, Amazon’s forthcoming internet satellite constellation, abetted by OneWeb’s new dependency on SpaceX for access to space.
This fight dates back to the split between OneWeb founder Greg Wyler and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who had originally plotted a joint satellite internet project together. When they went their separate ways, they became rivals for the radio spectrum required to provide connectivity in space. At the FCC, they have fought over how to share or split that spectrum, with OneWeb citing its first-filer status as an advantage.
More:
https://qz.com/emails/space-business/2178264/spacex-made-a-surprising-peace-deal-to-focus-its-satellite-fight-with-amazon/
