January 20, 2019

D-STAR ONE Launched, Telemetry Received

January 20, 2019/ Colin Butler

German Orbital Systems reports a successful telemetry downlink has been received.

D-Star ONE Sparrow and D-Star ONE iSat were successfully launched on 27th December 2018 as part of an ECM smallsat cluster on the Soyuz-2/Fregat from Russia's Vostochny launch site.

During the first orbits, beacons were received in the US, Germany, Czech Republic and Belarus, confirming the successful separations of the satellites on their target orbit 585 km, 97.73 deg, SSO.

D-Star ONE Sparrow and D-Star ONE iSat are a pair of 3U cubesats which are equipped with four identical radio modules with D-Star capabilities, all being operated in a half-duplex mode. At press time DSTAR One Sparrow was planned to be used for amateur radio.

January 06, 2019

$900,000 Settlement in Unauthorized Satellite Launch Case

January 06, 2019/ Colin Butler

The FCC has settled an investigation into an alleged unauthorized launch and operation of small satellites by Swarm Technologies. The company agreed to a Consent Decree that included a $900,000 penalty, an extended period of FCC oversight, and a requirement of pre-launch notices to the FCC, among other stipulations.

“We will aggressively enforce the FCC’s requirements that companies seek FCC authorization prior to deploying and operating communications satellites and earth stations. These important obligations protect other operators against radio interference and collisions, making space a safer place to operate.”

— FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Rosemary Harold

In April 2017, Swarm applied for an Experimental license to deploy and operate two Earth stations and four tiny 0.25 U CubeSats called SpaceBEEs. The FCC denied Swarm’s application in December 2017 over concerns about the ability to track the satellites. Swarm nevertheless launched the satellites on January 12, 2018, on a vehicle that also carried an Amateur Radio satellite into space. After reports of the unauthorized SpaceBEEs launch surfaced, the FCC launched an investigation last March.

The FCC determined that Swarm had launched the four SpaceBEEs from India and had unlawfully transmitted signals between Earth stations in Georgia and the satellites for more than a week. In addition, the FCC discovered that Swarm had also performed unauthorized weather balloon-to-ground station tests and other unauthorized equipment tests prior to the launch. All these activities required FCC authorization.

The December resolution requires Swarm to pay a penalty $900,000 to the US Treasury and to submit pre-launch reports to the FCC for the next 3 years. The FCC said Swarm has committed to a strict compliance plan to prevent future FCC rule violations.

The FCC issued an Enforcement Advisory last April to remind satellite operators that they must obtain FCC authorization for space station and Earth station operations. The advisory cautioned satellite operators and launch companies against proceeding with launch arrangements following a license denial or prior to receiving an FCC authorization.