Government Agencies Need to be In-Sync to Avoid Another Unauthorized Launch
Federal Communications Commission. Photo: FCC
It is unclear what exactly will happen to Swarm Technologies after launching its smallsats without government approval in January, but what is clear is the big communication gap between the government bodies that grant these approvals and the ones that fund projects like these. In Swarm’s case, the company had received contracts from NASA, the U.S. Navy, and the National Science Foundation with no apparent knowledge that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had denied the company’s application. Some of the funding was even granted two months after the unauthorized launch. As commercial space continues to grow and all sorts of megaconstellation plans pop up, streamlined communications within government agencies will become more important than ever.