SpaceX has finally received permission from the Federal Communications Commission to launch a second-generation Starlink network, but it’ll have to do so at a much smaller scale.
The second-gen Starlink network was supposed to span a massive 29,988 satellites, which would be about five times larger than the current number of active satellites around Earth. But on Thursday, the FCC granted SpaceX the authority to only operate up to 7,500 satellites at over 500 kilometers above the Earth.
The decision was made to both help Starlink supply high-speed internet to consumers while also addressing concerns from rival companies, environment groups and astronomers about the second-generation network’s massive size.
“This limited grant and associated conditions will protect other satellite and terrestrial operators from harmful interference and maintain a safe space environment, promoting competition and protecting spectrum and orbital resources for future use,” the Commission wrote in the decision.
SpaceX filed the application for the second-generation Starlink system back in May, 2020. Since then, numerous groups have weighed in on the proposal, which forced the FCC to reckon with a range of issues including whether the proposed satellite constellation risks posing an orbital hazard. “To address concerns about orbital debris and space safety, we limit this grant to 7,500 satellites only, operating at certain altitudes” the FCC wrote.
But despite the partial approval, the Commission notes it actually isn’t increasing the number of satellites SpaceX can launch for Starlink. That’s because SpaceX plans to consolidate 7,518 satellites from the company’s unlaunched V-band satellite constellation into the second-generation network, the decision notes.
“This means our action today does not increase the total number of satellites SpaceX is authorized to deploy, and in fact slightly reduces it, as compared to the total number of satellites SpaceX would potentially have deployed otherwise,” the Commission wrote.
However, the FCC says it could approve more second-gen Starlink satellites in the future. "The smaller number of satellites will allow continued monitoring of deployment based on conditions adopted in this Order, prior to consideration of the much larger number of satellites SpaceX requests over the long term," the regulator wrote.
The FCC is also requiring SpaceX to coordinate with NASA, the National Science Foundation and specific observatories to prevent Starlink from interfering with scientific missions. To mitigate spectrum interference, the second-generation Starlink satellites must use “no more than one satellite beam” while “in the same frequency in the same or overlapping areas at a time” for certain frequency bands.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the approval is crucial to improving the broadband quality and coverage for Starlink, which is facing ongoing congestion woes. Since the start of this year, the speeds for Starlink have dropped for customers in the US and Canada due to too many users stretching the capacity for the satellite internet system.
SpaceX currently has over 3,200 satellites in orbit for the first-generation network, which has an FCC license to span a total of 4,408 satellites. The company plans on improving the second-generation network with larger, more powerful satellites, which intend to be launched on a weekly basis starting next year.