<div dir="ltr">

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><tbody style="box-sizing:border-box"><tr style="box-sizing:border-box"><td style="box-sizing:border-box"><div id="gmail-story" style="box-sizing:border-box;width:618.667px;font-size:16px;height:auto;float:left"><h1 class="gmail-article-main-title" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:16pt">FCC accuses stealthy startup of launching rogue satellites</h1><strong style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#666666" style="box-sizing:border-box"><em style="box-sizing:border-box">The U.S. communications agency says tiny Internet of Things satellites from Swarm Technologies could endanger other spacecraft</em></font></strong><p style="box-sizing:border-box">On 12 January, a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket blasted off from India’s eastern coast. While its primary cargo was a large Indian mapping satellite, dozens of secondary CubeSats from other countries travelled along with it. Seattle-based Planetary Resources supplied a spacecraft that will test prospecting tools for future asteroid miners, Canadian company Telesat launched a broadband communications satellite, and a British Earth-observation mission called Carbonite will capture high-definition video of the planet’s surface.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box">Also on board were four small satellites that probably should not have been there. SpaceBee-1, 2, 3, and 4 were briefly described by the Indian space agency ISRO as “<a href="https://www.isro.gov.in/sites/default/files/flipping_book/PSLV-C40_Cartosat2SeriesMission/files/assets/common/downloads/PSLV-C40%20-%20Cartosat%202%20Series%20Mission.pdf" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,51,102);text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word">two-way satellite communications and data relay</a>” devices from the United States. No operator was specified, and only ISRO publicly noted that they successfully reached orbit the same day.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box"><em style="box-sizing:border-box"><strong style="box-sizing:border-box">IEEE Spectrum</strong></em><span> </span>can reveal that the SpaceBees are almost certainly the first spacecraft from a Silicon Valley startup called Swarm Technologies, currently still in stealth mode. Swarm was founded in 2016 by one engineer who developed a spacecraft concept for Google and another who sold his previous company to Apple. The SpaceBees were built as technology demonstrators for a new space-based Internet of Things communications network.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box">Swarm believes its network could enable satellite communications for orders of magnitude less cost than existing options. It envisages the worldwide tracking of ships and cars, new agricultural technologies, and low cost connectivity for humanitarian efforts anywhere in the world. The four SpaceBees would be the first practical demonstration of Swarm’s prototype hardware and cutting-edge algorithms, swapping data with ground stations for up to eight years.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box">The only problem is, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had<span> </span><a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=203152&amp;x=." target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,51,102);text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word">dismissed Swarm’s application</a><span> </span>for its experimental satellites a month earlier, on safety grounds. The FCC is responsible for regulating commercial satellites, including minimizing the chance of accidents in space. It feared that the four SpaceBees now orbiting the Earth would pose an unacceptable collision risk for other spacecraft.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box">If confirmed, this would be the first ever unauthorized launch of commercial satellites.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box">Read the full<span> </span><em style="box-sizing:border-box">IEEE Spectrum</em><span> </span>article:<br style="box-sizing:border-box"><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/fcc-accuses-stealthy-startup-of-launching-rogue-satellites" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,51,102);text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word">https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/fcc-accuses-stealthy-startup-of-launching-rogue-satellites</a></p></div></td></tr></tbody></table>

<br></div>