FCC Relaxes Amazon's Satellite Internet Deadline

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted Amazon an extension on its Leo satellite internet deployment, according to a ruling released on June 5. Amazon was supposed to launch over 1,600 Leo satellites, half of its planned constellation, by July 30th. However, the company requested an extension in January due to rocket capacity issues and changes to its satellite design. 

“[The] waiver serves the public interest by promoting a second large satellite broadband constellation” (along with SpaceX) .... “In this case, strict adherence to the rules would curtail Amazon Leo’s deployment of its Gen1 constellation by limiting the service it can provide to American consumers. Such would be contrary to the Commission’s mandate under the Communications Act.””

— FCC

Amazon's request for an extension was opposed by SpaceX, which complained that the FCC would be giving its rival special treatment. "Amazon failed to mention that over the past six years, it launched barely six per cent of the satellites that it pressured the Commission to approve ahead of its competitors," Elon Musk's company said in a protest letter to the FCC.

However, Amazon said that its slow pace wasn't due to a lack of satellites but problems getting them into orbit. "No operator could have predicted that all three core heavy-lift launch programs — Ariane 6, New Glenn, and ULA's Vulcan Centaur — would experience repeated, concurrent scheduling slips severe enough to exhaust the buffers Amazon Leo had built in," the company said. Both Vulcan and New Glenn are grounded following recent anomalies, most recently the dramatic launchpad explosion of New Glenn on May 29. 

The reprieve came with a condition, though: Amazon will lose its "priority status" for any launches after 31st July 2026. That means it will be required to demonstrate that Leo "will not interfere with other operators," particularly SpaceX. That clause addresses SpaceX's primary concern about conflicts with its Starlink constellation. 

Though Leo's midway milestone was waived, the FCC is still holding to its primary deadline requiring Leo to have its full constellation of 3,232 satellites in orbit by July 2029. That will still pose a large challenge, considering Origin's New Glenn rocket will be delayed by months. Future launches, including with other providers like SpaceX, will also need to go without a hitch. Despite all the issues, Amazon still plans to launch commercial Leo internet service later this year.

CW Ops Needed to Copy Data from Tokyo-Built Cubesat

Researchers are reaching out to the amateur radio community to listen for CW signals from a CubeSat built in Tokyo.

The Sakamoto Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan, is asking for the continued support of the amateur radio community for its ARICA-2 CubeSat. The 2U CubeSat, launched from New Zealand in late April, has been transmitting CW signals to the laboratory and is relying on the amateur community as well to send reports. The CW data is sent at 20 wpm on 436.830 MHz.

At some point, GMSK transmissions will also commence and will be announced by the satellite team on the social media platform "X" and through the AMSAT bulletin board. The satellite will use 4,800 GMSK in AX25 format.

ARICA-2 also has a mission unrelated to amateur radio: Its function is to collect images of the Earth and aurora using machine learning, and to demonstrate real-time alerts of gamma-ray bursts and other astronomical events using commercial satellite services.

CW reception reports can be submitted using the link that appears in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

More Information - https://sakamotolab.phys.aoyama.ac.jp/research/future_space/ARICA-2_en/cw_beacon

FCC Grants Frequencies' Use for Satellite Service

The US Federal Communications Commission announced that it had authorised AST SpaceMobile’s full, 248-satellite constellation to use requested parts of the radio spectrum, including those that had drawn objections from the amateur radio community.

The agency’s move will permit AST to fulfil its goal of providing services to consumers in so-called “dead zones,” regions without terrestrial networks, especially for emergency services. The successful application on behalf of the low-Earth orbit satellite system was granted on the 21st April 2026 with conditions. The grant for the use of 698 to 960 MHz includes permission to make use of 430 to 440 MHz for emergency control and tracking of the satellites - a move that amateur radio operators feared would cause interference with hams’ operations.

The FCC said that AST emergency telemetry use will be limited to the 430.5MHz, 432.3MHz, 434.1MHz, 435.9MHz, and 439.5MHz frequencies for a duration of less than 24 hours. The FCC has said in the past that interference with ham radio was “unlikely.”