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WASHINGTON – OneWeb says it is drastically reducing the size of a next-generation satellite constellation originally proposed to have nearly 48,000 satellites.
In a Jan. 12 filing with the Federal Communications Commission, OneWeb requested permission to amend an application filed in May requesting the launch of 47,844 satellites for its “phase two” constellation. Instead, the company offers a system with 6,372 satellites.
The revised constellation, OneWeb said in a Jan. 13 statement, “demonstrates the commitment and vision” of its new owners, the UK government and Indian telecommunications company Bharti Global, to “deploy a cost-effective, responsible satellite network. and revolutionary for delivering global broadband. “
The initial phase two proposal filed with the FCC envisioned a system with 32 planes with 720 satellites each at 40-degree bank, 32 planes with 720 satellites each at 55-degree bank, and 36 planes with 49 satellites each at 55-degree bank. inclination of 87.9 degrees, for a total of 47,844 satellites, all in orbit 1,200 kilometers high. These would be in addition to its initial constellation of around 650 satellites the company is currently deploying, which is unaffected by the proposed change.
The revised system maintains the same number and arrangement of the orbital planes, but reduces the number of satellites in each of the 40-degree and 55-degree planes from 720 to 72. The satellites in the 87.9-degree orbital planes are unchanged , reducing the total size of the system to 6,372 satellites.
“OneWeb expects this revised deployment plan for its Phase 2 constellation to enable it to achieve higher user throughput and spectral efficiency while reducing funding requirements and fostering OneWeb’s ‘Responsible Space’ vision. The company said in its FCC file. “This amendment is an integral part of OneWeb’s commitment to support the long-term use of space for all while preserving the orbital environment.”
Despite reducing the constellation size by more than 85%, OneWeb has asked the FCC to consider the amendment “minor” in its priority rating rules for various applications. The company said it was not making any other changes, such as frequency allocation, for the system, so “this satellite reduction proposal will not increase potential interference” to other systems.
It is not clear how serious OneWeb was in its initial proposal to launch nearly 48,000 satellites. The company filed the claim when it was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and suspended deployment of its first-generation system. That rollout resumed in December, after the company exited Chapter 11 under its new ownership.
The size of the system, larger than any other proposed constellation, has alarmed some in the space sustainability arena due to the increased risk of orbital debris. Astronomers were also concerned that the satellites posed an even greater risk to their observations than SpaceX’s Starlink system.
“It is clear that a huge constellation of 50,000 satellites at high altitude is the most threatening to visible astronomy,” said Olivier Hainaut, astronomer at the European Southern Observatory, at a conference in July on the effect of satellite mega-stellations on astronomy.
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