“My fundamental ask here is that we need to make headway here and begin sharing data across all vehicles, from whatever country you are, with us and with others, to promote a safe operating environment,” Nicolls said.
Nearly all Chinese satellite operators decline to publicly share their satellite ephemeris data.
Credit:
SpaceX
What do SpaceX’s competitors think? Ars asked the head of Amazon Leo, Rajeev Badyal, about coordinating with Starlink, his chief competitor in the satellite broadband market. Amazon has 396 satellites in orbit today, with hundreds more awaiting launch when their rockets are ready to take them to orbit.
“Space safety is paramount to us as well,” Badyal said. “Every launch we do, we actually coordinate with SpaceX. We coordinate with others who have satellites. We let them know where we’re going to drop them off, how we’re going to orbit raise, etc. So we have regular meetings with companies like SpaceX to exchange data.
“So, for us, sharing ephemeris or sharing the information necessary for space safety is a non-issue,” Badyal said. “We’re big proponents of making sure that all of us operate in this domain in space in a coordinated fashion because [the] consequences of not doing so are significant for everybody, and there’s no reason not to.”
Amazon Leo’s first-generation constellation will consist of 3,232 satellites, and the Federal Communications Commission in February approved Amazon’s request for a 4,504-satellite second-generation network. Amazon has filed for FCC approval for an additional 5,105 satellites for direct-to-device connectivity, but the company is still far from matching the size of the Starlink fleet.
“Obviously, SpaceX is the largest constellation out there,” Badyal said. “We work with them hand in hand. In terms of China and adversaries, that’s something I can’t comment on at the moment. At some point, we will have to coordinate, or it’ll end up being a negative thing for everybody, especially if they get to scale.”