Allocation of Spectrum for Non-Federal Space Launch Operations

<RULE> FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION <CFR>47 CFR Parts 2 and 26</CFR> <DEPDOC>[ET Docket No. 13-115; FCC 24-132; FR ID 273296]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Allocation of Spectrum for Non-Federal Space Launch Operations</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Communications Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) implements certain provisions of the Launch Communications Act (LCA) enacted September 26, 2024, governing the authorization and facilitation of commercial space operations in the 2025-2110 MHz, 2200-2290 MHz, and 2360-2395 MHz bands (collectively, the LCA bands). To meet this statutory mandate, the Commission builds upon its action in the September 2023 <E T="03">Second Report and Order</E> which, among other things, reallocated the 2025-2110 MHz and 2200-2290 MHz bands for non-Federal Space Operation on a secondary basis and adopted, for these two bands, space launch licensing framework. Specifically, the Commission reallocates the 2360-2395 MHz band on a secondary basis for Space Operation. Next, the Commission incorporates the 2360-2395 MHz band into its existing part 26 space launch regulatory framework that includes, for example, space launch licensing and frequency coordination rules. In order to protect critical Federal and non-Federal flight testing operations, we incorporate into our certain technical rules from our current. Finally, the Commission confirms that the specific licensing, registration, frequency coordination, and frequency coordinator selection procedures, to be refined by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (Bureau or WTB) on delegated authority, will apply to the LCA bands. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The rules are effective April 7, 2025, except for amendatory instruction 9 (adding § 26.202(d)), which is indefinitely delayed. The Federal Communications Commission will publish a document in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> announcing the effective date of this rule section. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Federal Communications Commission, 45 L St. NE, Washington, DC 20554. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For additional information on this proceeding, contact Nicholas Oros of the Office of Engineering and Technology, at <E T="03">Nicholas.Oros@fcc.gov</E> or 202-418-0636; Mark DeSantis of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau at <E T="03">Mark.Desantis@fcc.gov</E> or 202-418-0678; or Julia Malette of the Space Bureau, at <E T="03">Julia.Malette@fcc.gov</E> or 202-418-2453. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This is a summary of the Commission's Third Report and Order in ET Docket No. 13-115; FCC 24-132, adopted on December 23, 2024, and released on December 31, 2024. The full text of this document is available for public inspection online at <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-expands-reliable-spectrum-resources-commercial-space-launches.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Synopsis</HD> 1. The LCA directs the Commission, within 90 days of enactment, to complete any proceeding in effect as of the date of the LCA's enactment relating to the adoption of service rules for access to the 2025-2110 MHz, 2200-2290 MHz, and 2360-2395 MHz bands for “commercial space launches and commercial space reentries . . . .” As an initial matter, we find that the Commission's actions in the <E T="03">Second Report and Order,</E> published at 89 FR 63296, August 5, 2024, satisfy our LCA obligations regarding the 90-day requirement for the 2025-2110 MHz and 2200-2290 MHz bands, as we not only allocated these two frequency bands for Space Operation, but also created the part 26 regulatory framework, which includes service rules for space launch operations in those two bands, including “technical specifications, eligibility requirements, and coordination procedures to preserve the defense capabilities of the United States.” In the <E T="03">Third Report and Order,</E> the Commission modifies its rules to satisfy the LCA's 90-day directive with respect to the 2360-2395 MHz band. 2. Consistent with the LCA's requirements and the record developed in this proceeding, the Commission first modifies the U.S. Table and adopt a non-Federal secondary allocation for Space Operation in the 2360-2395 MHz band. Second, the Commission amends its current part 26 licensing and technical rules to incorporate the 2360-2395 MHz band, thereby leveraging a streamlined authorization and coordination framework that will apply to all part 26 applicants and licensees operating in the LCA bands. The Commission finds that this approach to authorizing space launch operations in the 2360-2395 MHz band will help ensure that incumbents, particularly Federal and non-Federal AMT flight test operators, are protected from harmful interference. The Commission's action in the <E T="03">Third Report and Order</E> not only fulfills the directives of the LCA to complete any proceeding in effect, but also provides regulatory certainty and improved efficiency for commercial space launch operations, and promotes continued innovation and investment in the United States commercial space launch industry. 3. The Commission recognizes that the LCA directs the Commission to “complete any proceeding” as it relates to a secondary allocation and adoption of services rules for “commercial space launches and commercial space reentries” in the LCA bands, and therefore clarify that its decision today does not complete the proceeding as it relates to other open issues raised in the <E T="03">Second Further Notice,</E> published at 89 FR 6488, February 2, 2024. Specifically, the <E T="03">Third Report and Order</E> does not address, among other things: three footnotes to the U.S. Table related to the use of spectrum by crewed and uncrewed spacecraft during space missions, as raised by NTIA; additional allocations and licensing needs for ISS-related space-to-space communications; spectrum allocation and licensing needs related to suborbital spaceflight; or the use of the 1435-1525 MHz band for space launch operations. These issues remain open and subject to possible future Commission action. 4. <E T="03">Reallocating the 2360-2395 MHz Band for Space Operation Pursuant to the LCA.</E> The LCA requires, among other things, that the Commission “allocate on a secondary basis [the 2025-2110 MHz, 2200-2290 MHz, and 2360-2395 MHz bands] for commercial space launches and commercial space reentries.” In the <E T="03">Second Report and Order,</E> the Commission adopted a non-Federal secondary allocation for Space Operation in the 2025-2110 MHz band and enhanced the existing secondary allocation for Space Operation in the 2200-2290 MHz band, expanding it from four sub-channels to span the entire band. In the <E T="03">Second Further Notice,</E> the Commission sought comment on several potential modifications to the U.S. Table that could continue our efforts to provide regulatory certainty and additional spectrum for space launch operations. Taking into account the clear Congressional directive in the LCA, which requires the Commission to “allocate [the 2360-2395 MHz band] on a secondary basis . . . for commercial space launches and commercial space reentries,” as well as the record in response to the <E T="03">Second Further Notice,</E> we find sufficient support and justification for adopting a new secondary allocation for Space Operation in the 2360-2395 MHz band. 5. In adopting the Space Operation allocations for the 2025-2110 MHz and 2200-2290 MHz bands, the Commission made space launch operations subject to various conditions, including limiting them to pre-launch testing and space launch operations. In the <E T="03">Second Report and Order,</E> the Commission defined “space launch operations” broadly, as “any activity that places a launch vehicle, whether an expendable launch vehicle or a reusable launch vehicle or a reentry vehicle used for launch, and any payload or human being from Earth in a suborbital trajectory in Earth orbit, or otherwise in outer space, including pre-launch testing and recovery or reentry of the launch vehicle.” The Space Operation allocations the Commission adopted for these bands therefore permit use for both commercial space launches and commercial space reentries. Accordingly, the Commission concludes that the actions taken in <E T="03">Second Report and Order</E> satisfy the requirements of § 2(a)(1)(B) of the LCA with respect to allocations of the 2025-2110 MHz and 2200-2290 MHz bands. In the <E T="03">Third Report and Order,</E> the Commission addresses the allocation for the 2360-2395 MHz band and thereby satisfy the requirements of § 2(a)(1)(B) of the LCA with respect to this band. To clearly reflect the extent of the activities permitted under the Space Operation allocations for the LCA bands, the Commission adds the definition of “space launch operations” that the Commission adopted in the <E T="03">Second Report and Order</E> into part 2 of our rules. 6. In the <E T="03">Third Report and Order,</E> the Commission notes that “Space Operation Service” is defined in the U.S. Table as “a radiocommunication service concerned exclusively with the operation of spacecraft, in particular space tracking, space telemetry, and space telecommand.” The LCA, however, does not refer to an allocation for “Space Operation.” Rather, it requires a secondary allocation for “frequencies for commercial space launches and commercial space reentries,” which it defines as a launch or reentry licensed under chapter 509 of title 51, United States Code. The Commission finds that the Space Operation allocation is sufficient to cover frequencies for the launches and reentries that are licensed un ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 98k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━