Regulatory Pathway

All required approvals totaling $265K over 24 months, running in parallel with hardware development, so regulatory is never on the critical path.

$265K

Total regulatory cost

24 mo

Timeline to all approvals

Parallel

Runs alongside hardware dev

Required Approvals

Agency	Approval	Lead Time	Required?
FCC	Part 25 Space Station License	12–18 mo	YES
FCC	Earth Station License (ground)	6–12 mo	YES
FCC	Orbital Debris Mitigation Plan	Part of above	YES
DDTC/BIS	ITAR/EAR Classification	3–6 mo	YES
FAA/DOT	Launch License	N/A	Via SpaceX
Insurer	Launch + In-Orbit + Liability	3–6 mo	YES
NOAA	Remote Sensing License	6–12 wk	If EO processing
DOC/BIS	Encryption Export Classification	1–3 mo	If crypto export

FCC Part 25: Critical Path

The FCC Part 25 Space Station License is the longest-lead regulatory item at 12–18 months. Filed at Month 1, it completes by Month 15, well before any hardware is ready for launch.

Spectrum Allocation

Link	Band	Frequency	BW	Purpose
TT&C Up	S-band	2025–2110 MHz	1 MHz	Commanding
TT&C Down	S-band	2200–2290 MHz	1 MHz	Telemetry
Data Down	Ka-band	25.5–27.0 GHz	500 MHz	GPU results
Data Up	Ka-band	29.5–30.0 GHz	250 MHz	Job upload
ISL	Ka-band	22.55–23.55 GHz	500 MHz	Sat-to-sat

FCC application fee: $52K

Legal counsel: $50–100K

Interference study: $20–40K

ITAR/EAR Export Control

Component	Control	Category	Jurisdiction
Satellite bus	USML XV	Defense article	ITAR (DDTC)
Solar arrays	USML XV	Defense article	ITAR (DDTC)
NVIDIA GPUs	CCL 3A001	Dual-use	EAR (BIS)
Ka-band modem	CCL 5A001	Dual-use	EAR (BIS)
AES-256 encryption	CCL 5A002	Dual-use	EAR (BIS)

DDTC registration: $2,250/yr. Initial compliance program: $20–30K. Ongoing: $25K/yr.

Orbital Debris Compliance

The disk architecture provides a natural advantage for debris compliance: the 10m-radius disk acts as a drag sail with an extremely low ballistic coefficient.

Orbit altitude

700 km SSO

Satellite mass

934 kg

Disk drag area

314 m² (10m radius)

Ballistic coefficient

1.33 kg/m² (extremely low)

FCC requirement

Deorbit within 5 years

Propulsion budget

~50 m/s ΔV (electric)

Strategy: active deorbit via electric propulsion + natural atmospheric drag from the disk. The low ballistic coefficient means even passive deorbit completes well within the 5-year FCC window.

Insurance Breakdown

Type	Coverage	Premium	5-Year Total
Launch insurance	$2.5M	$250K	$250K
In-orbit insurance	$17M	$510K/yr	$2.55M
3rd-party liability	$500M MPL	$15K/yr	$75K
TOTAL (5 years)			$2.88M

Regulatory Timeline

Company formation + ITAR registration (1–2 months)

FCC Part 25 application filed

Export control compliance program established (3–6 months)

FCC Experimental License (Part 5) for ground tests (2–4 weeks)

FCC Earth Station application filed

M12

Insurance procurement begins (3–6 months)

M15

FCC Part 25 license GRANTED

M18

Launch safety coordination with SpaceX

M24

ALL APPROVALS COMPLETE

Regulatory Moat

Spectrum Rights

FCC Part 25 Ka-band license creates a durable competitive barrier. Spectrum is finite and first-come-first-served.

ITAR Compliance

Full ITAR program is a 6+ month investment that most startups defer. Early compliance enables DoD contracts.

Security Accreditation

IL4/IL5/IL6 accreditation takes 12–18 months. Once achieved, it’s a deep moat against later entrants.

Flight Heritage

First on-orbit demonstration creates heritage data. Government procurement heavily weights heritage over paper designs.

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