Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Announces Mechanism and Criteria for Selecting Space Launch Frequency Coordinator

<RULE> FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION <CFR>47 CFR Part 26</CFR> <DEPDOC>[WT Docket No. 24-687; DA 25-269; FRS 289896]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Announces Mechanism and Criteria for Selecting Space Launch Frequency Coordinator</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Communications Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final action. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this document, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB or Bureau) announces a mechanism and criteria for selecting the Space Launch Frequency Coordinator for the Federal Communications Commission's (Commission) Space Launch Service. Specifically, interested parties will file applications electronically using the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System in WT Docket 24-687, through which they will demonstrate certain minimum qualifying criteria. </SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> 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 document, WT Docket No. 24-687; DA 25-269, released on March 25, 2025. The released, formatted version of this document is available at <E T="03">https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-269A1.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">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 a Final Regulatory Flexibility Certification (FRFC) certifying that the rule and policy changes contained in this document will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Paperwork Reduction Act Analysis</HD> This document may contain new or modified information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Public Law 104-13. All such requirements will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under section 3507(d) of the PRA. OMB, the general public, and other federal agencies will be invited to comment on any new or modified information collection requirements contained in this proceeding. In addition, pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107-198, <E T="03">see</E> 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4), the Bureau previously sought specific comment on how the Commission might further reduce the information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Synopsis</HD> By this document, as directed by the Commission in the <E T="03">Third Report and Order</E> (90 FR 11480-01, March 7, 2025) in this proceeding, the Bureau establishes a mechanism and criteria for selecting the third-party frequency coordinator for the part 26 commercial Space Launch Service. Specifically, the Bureau sets forth an application process and required contents for applications from parties requesting to be certified as the space launch frequency coordinator, and sets forth minimum qualifying criteria for such applicants. The Bureau issues this document 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> (89 FR 63296-01, August 5, 2024) in this proceeding, the Commission adopted a new secondary allocation in the 2,025-2,110 MHz band for non-federal Space Operation and, with respect to the 2,200-2,290 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 the Space Launch Service will: (1) apply for and obtain a non-exclusive nationwide license via the Commission's Universal Licensing System (ULS); (2) register in ULS each launch site and each corresponding station (fixed, base, itinerant, or mobile) that will be used in their space launch operations; (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. A space launch operator must register the final coordinated technical parameters in ULS to be authorized to commence launch operations. <E T="03">The Launch Communications Act.</E> Following the Commission's adoption of the <E T="03">Second Report and Order,</E> Congress enacted the Launch Communications Act (LCA) on September 26, 2024. The LCA requires Commission action with respect to three frequency bands: the 2,025-2,110 MHz and 2,200-2,290 MHz bands that were the subject of the <E T="03">Second Report and Order,</E> and the 2,360-2,395 MHz band, upon which the Commission sought comment in the Second Further Notice, and that was addressed in the <E T="03">Third Report and Order</E> . The LCA first requires the Commission, within 90 days of the LCA's enactment, to allocate each of these bands on a secondary basis for commercial space launches and reentries and to complete any proceeding in effect related to the adoption of service rules for these three bands. The Commission also must issue, within 180 days of the LCA's enactment, new regulations to streamline the process for granting authorizations for access to these three bands. These regulations must provide for, among other things: (1) authorizations that include multiple uses of the frequencies for multiple launches and reentries from one or more private and federal launch and reentry sites; (2) electronic filing and processing of applications for access to such frequencies for commercial space launches and reentries; and (3) improved coordination with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to increase the speed of review of applications for authorizations to access frequencies for space launch and reentry through increased automation similar to an approach currently used for the 70/80/90 GHz bands. <E T="03">Delegations of Authority.</E> In the <E T="03">Second Report and Order,</E> the Commission delegated authority to the Bureau to issue a public notice proposing and seeking comment on issues related to the licensing framework for the Space Launch Service to refine the application process and accommodate frequency coordination, including required information for license registrations and frequency coordination requests. The Commission also delegated authority to the Bureau to issue a public notice seeking further comment on the designation of the third-party space launch coordinator, including a mechanism for its selection. The Bureau issued both of these public notices on December 6, 2024. In the <E T="03">Frequency Coordinator Comment PN</E> (89 FR 104499-01, December 23, 2024), the Bureau proposed and sought comment on the mechanism for selecting the space launch frequency coordinator and the minimum industry and technical expertise that parties interested in being designated as the space launch frequency coordinator must demonstrate. The Bureau proposed that the applicant selected from this process to serve as the space launch frequency coordinator would be required to execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Commission, formally memorializing its duties and obligations. <E T="03">Third Report and Order.</E> On December 23, 2024, the Commission issued a <E T="03">Third Report and Order</E> that reallocated the third band, 2,360-2,395 MHz, on a secondary basis for non-federal Space Operation and incorporated the band into its part 26 Space Launch Service framework. The Commission satisfied the 90-day LCA requirement to complete any proceeding in effect through a combination of: (1) previously adopting the <E T="03">Second Report and Order,</E> thereby creating the part 26 licensing framework for authorizing commercial space launches and commercial space reentries and allocating the 2,025-2,110 MHz and 2,200-2,290 MHz bands for non-federal Space Operation on a secondary basis; and (2) adopting the <E T="03">Third Report and Order,</E> which allocated the 2,360-2,395 MHz band on a secondary basis for non-federal Space Operation, and extended the part 26 licensing ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 30k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━