Overview
- Blue Origin’s March 19 filing seeks authority to deploy a sun‑synchronous constellation at roughly 500–1,800 km, with 300–1,000 satellites per orbital plane.
- The satellites would primarily use optical intersatellite links tied to Blue Origin’s planned TeraWave backbone, with Ka‑band limited to telemetry, tracking and control.
- The application requests waivers of standard deployment milestones and proposes non‑interference, unprotected operations for TT&C in specified Ka‑band slices.
- Blue Origin commits to deorbiting satellites within five years after end‑of‑life and to brightness mitigation, while noting no ITU filing yet and providing few technical or schedule specifics.
- The plan enters a crowded field that includes SpaceX’s bid for up to 1 million orbital data‑center satellites and Starcloud’s proposal, raising competition for sun‑synchronous lanes as experts question feasibility, costs and environmental impacts.