U.S. Court Upholds FCC Approval for SpaceX Starlink Deployment

A U.S. appeals court upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s approval for SpaceX to deploy thousands of Starlink satellites for space-based broadband service. The decision rejects challenges from DISH Network and an environmental group concerned about signal interference and light pollution.

A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the decision of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve SpaceX’s plan to deploy thousands of Starlink satellites for space-based broadband internet service.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a legal challenge from DISH Network and an environmental group composed of amateur astronomers and dark-sky enthusiasts. DISH argued that the FCC did not adequately consider the risk of signal interference with other satellites.

In a previous ruling in 2022, the court had also dismissed a separate challenge to SpaceX's plan to deploy satellites at a lower Earth orbit than originally planned.