By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to approve SpaceX’s plan to deploy thousands of Starlink satellites to provide broadband internet service in space.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has rejected the legal challenge from Dish Network (NASDAQ:) and an environmental group made up of amateur astronomers and dark-sky enthusiasts. DISH argued that the FCC had not adequately considered the risk of signal interference with other satellites, while the astronomers’ group said the FCC had not followed environmental law in its approval. The court in 2022 dismissed a separate challenge to SpaceX’s plan to deploy the satellites in a lower Earth orbit than planned.
In late 2022, the Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceX’s application to deploy up to 7,500 satellites after the commission in 2018 approved SpaceX’s plans to deploy up to 4,425 first-generation satellites.
SpaceX has sought approval to operate a network of 29,988 satellites, known as the Starlink Gen2 constellation, to deliver internet to areas with poor or no internet access.
“The FCC’s decision to license SpaceX’s second-generation Starlink satellites was lawful and reasonable,” the three-judge panel said. Dish did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2022, the Federal Communications Commission rejected applications from SpaceX and billionaire Elon Musk’s LTD Broadband for money provisionally awarded in 2020 under the commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a multibillion-dollar program in which SpaceX was set to receive $885.5 million to beam internet via satellite to areas of the U.S. with little or no internet access.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel defended the decision at a House hearing this week. The FCC said in December that the decision was based on Starlink’s failure to meet basic program requirements and that Starlink had failed to demonstrate its ability to deliver the promised service.