Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Seeks Comment on Licensing and Coordination Procedures for the Space Launch Service

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION <CFR>47 CFR Part 26</CFR> <DEPDOC>[ET Docket No. 13-115; DA 24-1232; RIN 3060-AL44; FRS 268468]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Seeks Comment on Licensing and Coordination Procedures for the Space Launch Service</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Communications Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notification. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this Public Notice, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (Bureau) makes proposals and seeks comment on issues related to the Federal Communications Commission's (Commission) Space Launch Service. In particular, it proposes licensing and frequency coordination procedures and data requirements for Space Launch Service licensees seeking Commission authorization to perform non-Federal space launch operations in the 2025-2110 MHz, 2200-2290 MHz, and 2360-2395 MHz bands. Filers responding to this Public Notice should submit comments in ET Docket No. 13-115. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Interested parties may file comments on or before January 22, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments, identified by ET Docket No. 13-115, by any of the following methods: • Comments may be filed using the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). • <E T="03">Electronic Filers:</E> Comments may be filed electronically using the internet by accessing ECFS: <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/.</E> • <E T="03">Paper Filers:</E> Parties who choose to file by paper must file an original and one copy of each filing. ○ Filings can be sent by hand or messenger delivery, by commercial overnight courier, or by First-Class or overnight U.S. Postal Service mail. All filings must be addressed to the Commission's Secretary, Office of the Secretary, Federal Communications Commission. ○ All hand-delivered or messenger-delivered paper filings for the Commission's Secretary are accepted between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at 9050 Junction Drive, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701. All hand deliveries must be held together with rubber bands or fasteners. Any envelopes and boxes must be disposed of before entering the building. ○ Commercial overnight deliveries (other than U.S. Postal Service Express Mail and Priority Mail) must be sent to 9050 Junction Drive, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701. U.S. Postal Service First-Class, Express, and Priority mail must be addressed to Secretary, Federal Communications Commission, 45 L St. NE, Washington, DC 20554. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Mark DeSantis, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Mobility Division, (202) 418-0678 or <E T="03">mark.desantis@fcc.gov.</E> For information regarding the PRA information collection requirements, contact Cathy Williams, Office of Managing Director, at 202-418-2918 or <E T="03">Cathy.Williams@fcc.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This is a summary of the WTB Public Notice, ET Docket No. 13-115; DA 24-1232, released on December 6, 2024. The released, formatted version of this document is available at <E T="03">https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-24-1232A1.pdf.</E> Text and Microsoft Word formats are also available (replace “.pdf” in the link with “.txt” or “.docx”, respectively. Alternative formats are available for people with disabilities (braille, large print, electronic files, audio format), by sending an email to <E T="03">fcc504@fcc.gov</E> or call the Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530 (voice), (202) 418-0432 (TTY). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act</HD> Consistent with the Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act, Public Law 118-9, a summary of this Public Notice will be available on <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/proposed-rulemakings.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Ex Parte Rules</HD> The proceeding this document initiates shall be treated as a “permit-but-disclose” proceeding in accordance with the Commission's <E T="03">ex parte</E> rules. Persons making <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations must file a copy of any written presentation or a memorandum summarizing any oral presentation within two business days after the presentation (unless a different deadline applicable to the Sunshine period applies). Persons making oral <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations are reminded that memoranda summarizing the presentation must (1) list all persons attending or otherwise participating in the meeting at which the <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentation was made; and (2) summarize all data presented and arguments made during the presentation. If the presentation consisted in whole or in part of the presentation of data or arguments already reflected in the presenter's written comments, memoranda, or other filings in the proceeding, the presenter may provide citations to such data or arguments in his or her prior comments, memoranda, or other filings (specifying the relevant page and/or paragraph numbers where such data or arguments can be found) in lieu of summarizing them in the memorandum. Documents shown or given to Commission staff during <E T="03">ex parte</E> meetings are deemed to be written <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations and must be filed consistent with § 1.1206(b) of the Commission's rules. In proceedings governed by § 1.49(f) of the rules or for which the Commission has made available a method of electronic filing, written <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations and memoranda summarizing oral <E T="03">ex parte</E> presentations, and all attachments thereto, must be filed through the electronic comment filing system available for that proceeding, and must be filed in their native format ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> .doc, .xml, .ppt, searchable .pdf). Participants in this proceeding should familiarize themselves with the Commission's <E T="03">ex parte</E> rules. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Supplemental Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis</HD> The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended (RFA), requires that an agency prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis for notice and comment rulemakings, unless the agency certifies that the rule will not, if promulgated, have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.” If an agency files a certification with a rulemaking, the certification must contain a statement that provides a factual basis for its conclusion that there will not be significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Accordingly, the Commission has prepared an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Certification (IRFC) certifying that any rules subject to the RFA that may be contained in this Public Notice will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Paperwork Reduction Act Analysis</HD> This Public Notice may contain proposed modified information collection requirements. The Commission, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, invites the general public and the Office of Management and Budget to comment on the information collection requirements contained in this Public Notice, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13. In addition, pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107-198, see 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4), we seek specific comment on how we might further reduce the information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Synopsis</HD> By this Public Notice, as directed by the Commission in the <E T="03">Second Report and Order</E> in this proceeding (89 FR 63296-01, August 5, 2024), the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (Bureau) proposes and seeks comment on certain licensing and coordination procedures for the new commercial Space Launch Service. As detailed below, these include: the technical data to be provided to the Commission for purposes of registering launch sites, corresponding stations, and coordinated launches under a non-exclusive, nationwide space launch license; and the required procedures and data submissions for space launch operators to coordinate each individual launch with both Federal and non-Federal users via a third-party frequency coordinator to be selected at a later date. The Bureau issues this Public Notice at this time as part of an effort to meet the statutorily mandated deadlines set forth in the Launch Communications Act. <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> In the <E T="03">Second Report and Order,</E> the Commission adopted a secondary allocation in the 2025-2110 MHz band for non-Federal Space Operation and, with respect to the 2200-2290 MHz band, lifted a prior restriction limiting such operations to four sub-bands, thus making the entire band available on a secondary basis for non-Federal Space Operation. These allocations are subject to various conditions, including being limited to pre-launch testing and space launch operations. The Commission also adopted a licensing framework for these two bands under a new part 26 Space Launch Service. Through that framework, eligible space launch operators seeking authorization in either band will: (1) apply for and obtain a non-exclusive nationwide license via the Commission's Universal Licensing System (ULS); (2) register in ULS their launch sites and operational parameters, space launch vehicle stations, and each corresponding station (fixed, base, itinerant, or mobile) needed to support a launch; (3) complete a frequency coordination process using a third-party frequency coordinator; and (4) following successful coordination, register in ULS the technical and operating parameters associated with each specific coordinated launch prior to commencing operations. The Launch Communications Act. Fo ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 43k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━