Musk’s Starlink Wins Approval for New Satellites After Court Rejects Challenges

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a batch of 49 Starlink satellites launched at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Jan. 3, 2022. (SpaceX via AP/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

A federal court has upheld approval of a plan from Elon Musk’s Starlink to launch a new fleet of satellites, rejecting a challenge from DISH Network and an environmental group.

A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on July 12 said that the Federal Communications Commission properly adhered to federal law when it approved Starlink’s plan to deploy 7,500 satellites that will continuously circle the earth.

The commission has the authority to grant licenses for satellite systems if they are found to be in the public interest. The commission granted a license for the Starlink satellites because it found the network would improve access to the internet in “unserved and underserved regions of the United States and worldwide.”

DISH said that the Starlink satellites would interfere with its own satellites and that the approval was wrongly conditioned on pending verification from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The International Dark Sky Association said the commission needed to perform an environmental review to assess light pollution from the satellites before granting approval.

The appeals court said it was reasonable for the Federal Communications Commission to give SpaceX a conditional license while waiting for verification from the ITU, in part because there is a backlog of applications before the union. The panel of judges also ruled that the commission didn’t illegally delegate authority to the union, a United Nations agency.

“[T]asking the ITU with verifying an applicant’s compliance with the power limits is legitimate outside party input because it is nondiscretionary ‘fact gathering,’” Judge Neomi Rao, writing for the unanimous panel, said.

“Importantly, a favorable finding by the ITU does not automatically yield a license. The commission must consider a variety of factors, including satellite interference, to determine whether a license is in the public interest. After receiving the ITU’s compliance finding, the Commission makes the final decision about whether to grant a license,” the judge added later.

The International Dark Sky Association’s appeal also was turned down because, the judges said, the group didn’t show the commission’s actions were arbitrary, capricious, or illegal.

Federal law enables agencies to choose not to perform environmental reviews if officials determine licenses will not have a significant environmental impact. The commission determined the satellite network would not have a significant environmental impact, exempting it from an environmental review, according to the decision.

The conditional approval was for 7,500 satellites after SpaceX asked for a license to operate 29,988 satellites.