Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Announces Licensing and Coordination Procedures for the Space Launch Service

<RULE> FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION <CFR>47 CFR Part 26</CFR> <DEPDOC>[ET Docket No. 13-115; DA 25-270; FRS 289920]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Announces Licensing and Coordination Procedures for the Space Launch Service</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 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 2,025-2,110 MHz, 2,200-2,290 MHz, and 2,360-2,395 MHz bands. </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, ET Docket No. 13-115; DA 25-270, 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-25-270A1.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 Final 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 announces licensing and coordination procedures for the commercial Space Launch Service. On December 6, 2024, the Bureau issued a Public Notice proposing and seeking comment on procedures for licensees in the Space Launch Service to electronically register—under a non-exclusive, nationwide license—launch sites; individual fixed, base, itinerant, and mobile stations; and technical parameters of launches that have been successfully coordinated with federal and non-federal users. The Bureau also proposed and sought comment on procedures for space launch licensees to complete federal and non-federal coordination via a third-party frequency coordinator to be selected at a later date. After reviewing the record, we adopt the substantial majority of our proposals, with certain modifications described below. This approach is necessitated by the near-term timelines established by the Launch Communications Act. Moreover, we recognize that key data elements that we proposed be included in ULS registrations and provided to the space launch frequency coordinator were requested by, and coordinated with, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and associated federal government agency stakeholders, in a collaborative effort to ensure that secondary commercial space launch operations do not cause harmful interference to incumbent federal users. Where appropriate and consistent with the <E T="03">Second Report and Order</E> (89 FR 63296-301, August 5, 2024) and <E T="03">Third Report and Order</E> in this proceeding, we adopt certain modified proposals to further facilitate coordination of commercial space launch operations with non-federal incumbent uses. We note that certain procedures clarified through delegated authority in today's action may be revised by future Bureau public notice if necessitated by specific details associated with the future implementation of NTIA's automated mechanism and if consistent with the Commission's <E T="03">Second Report and Order</E> and <E T="03">Third Report and Order,</E> the authority delegated to the Bureau thereunder, and any subsequent Commission action in this proceeding. <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> In the <E T="03">Second Report and Order</E> in this proceeding, the Commission adopted a 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 launch 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 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 circumstances attending the designation of a single third-party space launch coordinator, including a mechanism for selecting the frequency coordinator. The Bureau issued each of these public notices on December 6, 2024. In the <E T="03">Licensing and Coordination Comment P ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 77k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━