The U.S. Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Federal Communications Commission, which had previously approved SpaceX's plan to place up to 2,824 Starlink Internet satellites in low Earth orbit, although it had previously planned to place fewer satellites in that orbit.
==History==FCC originally approved the launch of 4,409 Starlink satellites, of which 2,825 were to be in orbits of 1,100 km and 1,300 km and 1,584 were to be in orbit of 550 km. However, SpaceX later requested a low orbit permit for up to 2,824 vehicles, stating that this would reduce network delays and increase data transmission speeds.
Last April, the American regulator approved the new SpaceX plan, but the initiative was opposed by other market participants, including the Viasat satellite operator.
However, the Court of Appeal sided with SpaceX, supporting the decision of the FCC. The ruling states, inter alia, that Viasat operates only by one satellite, which is relatively close to Starlink, and therefore the arguments for a possible collision are not justified.
Viasat, in turn, stated that it considered this decision to be an obstacle to both space security and environmental protection. Another opponent of the SpaceX plan, the satellite television provider Dish Network, said that he would see how Starlink affected the quality of TV services.