Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN BRENDAN CARR

Re: 	Spectrum Abundance for Weird Space Stuff, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, SB Docket No. 26-54 (March 26, 2026). 

Over the years, the licensing team in the Space Bureau mostly handled applications to operate satellites, which is not too surprising.  But the workstream for the team a few floors above us today is quickly changing.  

Just look at the new types of applications that are coming in.  SpaceX has announced a plan to launch one-million data centers into space.  Starcloud followed with a plan for 88,000 orbital data centers.  And then came Blue Origin with a plan for 51,000.  

And it’s not just AI compute.  Companies are racing to produce energy—whether solar or nuclear—in space.  Manufacturers are now looking to make pharmaceuticals in space—the legal kind, of course.  The list of unconventional activities in orbit will only continue to increase as the cost of getting mass into orbit continues to decrease.  And there is another dynamic at play too.  Believe it or not, the environmental conditions in deep, dark space may be better for many industrial projects than they are on Earth.  

All of this stuff in space—whether or not you consider them “weird”— needs spectrum, even though we are not talking here about communications satellites.  Spectrum provides the necessary link for safety and control operations, or what the spectrum geeks call TT&C.  Unfortunately, next-gen missions have been constrained by a shortage of predictable, commercial spectrum for this type of TT&C.  It has proven to be a real limit on the ability to launch and deploy unconventional services.  

Today we tackle that challenge head-on.  We propose to clarify for good when cutting-edge missions can use commercial spectrum for TT&C.  We explore market‑based approaches that can put existing spectrum bands to more intensive use for these purposes.  And we examine new spectrum bands that could support cutting-edge missions on a dedicated basis.

America’s space companies, even the weird ones, need plentiful access to spectrum.  With today’s action, we continue our spectrum abundance agenda to support our builders in space.

For their exceptional work on this item, I thank Stephen Duall, Jameyanne Fuller, Kathyrn Medley, Brandon Padgett, Sankar Persaud, Jeanine Poltronieri, and Jay Schwarz.

2