- Joined
- May 18, 1997
- Messages
- 55,601
What do you do when the FCC tells you that you cannot put four small satellites into Earth's orbit because the ones you have are too small and possibly a danger to other satellites and spacecraft since these tiny ones are too hard to track? You go to India, do it anyways, and don't put your name on those aptly-titled "SpaceBEEs."
That all changed on Wednesday morning, with an email from Serafini to Spangelo setting aside permission for April’s Rocket Lab mission. The FCC believes that Swarm launched and is operating its original small satellites, despite having been forbidden to do so. If confirmed, this would be the first ever unauthorized launch of commercial satellites.
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 “two-way satellite communications and data relay” devices from the United States. No operator was specified, and only ISRO publicly noted that they successfully reached orbit the same day.
That all changed on Wednesday morning, with an email from Serafini to Spangelo setting aside permission for April’s Rocket Lab mission. The FCC believes that Swarm launched and is operating its original small satellites, despite having been forbidden to do so. If confirmed, this would be the first ever unauthorized launch of commercial satellites.
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 “two-way satellite communications and data relay” devices from the United States. No operator was specified, and only ISRO publicly noted that they successfully reached orbit the same day.