Summary

  • FCC notice DA 26-887 calls three launch and re-entry allocations 215 MHz wide. Their stated edges produce 85 + 90 + 35 = 210 MHz.
  • A nationwide, non-exclusive licence authorizes a service. It does not clear the technical parameters of tomorrow’s launch.
  • Federal and non-federal coordination run through separate lanes, while weather can move the launch window after people have done the paperwork.

The FCC has found five megahertz in the paperwork. The bands have not found it on the ruler.

In its 25 August 2026 public notice, the Commission describes three frequency ranges for commercial space launch and re-entry: 2025–2110 MHz, 2200–2290 MHz and 2360–2395 MHz. Read the endpoints and the arithmetic is plain: 85 MHz, 90 MHz and 35 MHz. Total: 210 MHz. The notice calls the combined amount 215 MHz.

The notice does not identify the five-megahertz difference; the FCC’s final allocation table would settle it. That is a small line in a long document, but it is a useful opening because the real question is also about the distance between a clean headline and an operating system.

Launch radio is not a permanent pipe from a pad to orbit. Before launch, operators use spectrum for ground testing. During launch and re-entry, telemetry, tracking and command links need to work across broad areas at particular moments. The window can move when weather or other launch conditions change. Spectrum access therefore has a calendar, geography and set of incumbent users attached to it.

The licence is a credential, not a launch clearance

Congress’s Launch Communications Act made the three named bands available for non-federal launch and re-entry use on a secondary basis. “Secondary” matters: existing primary services retain priority, and the launch user must protect them. The FCC’s 2025 licensing procedures make the distinction operational.

The Commission can issue a non-exclusive nationwide service licence. A licensee then registers launch sites and stations and submits the technical and operating parameters for each proposed operation. Those parameters must be coordinated; the approved final parameters must be filed in the FCC’s Universal Licensing System before operation. If the plan changes after coordination, it goes back through coordination.

That is a sensible division of labour. A nationwide licence avoids making each provider re-prove its basic authority for every site. It does not tell an incumbent that a particular transmitter, frequency, location and minute are harmless. A launch is an event, not a checkbox with a rocket-shaped icon.

Two desks, one countdown

The coordination path forks. Federal users are coordinated through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Non-federal users are coordinated through the Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council and other relevant parties. The FCC’s process sits above those operating checks; the NTIA’s portal, launched in March 2026, gives federal requests a common place for submission, status, comments and review.

The portal replaces an email-centred federal workflow. It does not replace the FCC licence, station registration or non-federal coordination. Nor does a green status field make clouds move. When a launch slips, the operator may need to update a request, find new availability and coordinate changed parameters while other users still have first claim to the band.

This is where the public debate over raw bandwidth can become a distraction. The FCC estimates about 200 launch activities a year in the United States. A presidential memorandum issued on 20 August sets a policy goal for ranges to support more than 1,000 launches and re-entries annually by 2030. One is the Commission’s description of current activity; the other is a federal capacity goal covering launches and re-entries. They are not matching measurements, but together they explain why a process built around individual operations is under pressure to become faster without becoming careless.

Measure the queue, not just the spectrum

DA 26-887 asked about launch cadence, geography, spectrum needs, allocation priority, coordination lead time and flexibility when weather changes the schedule. Comments closed in September. The record now needs to answer practical questions: how long does a complete request wait in each lane? How often does a moved window force resubmission? Which parameters cause a hold? Which changes can be handled quickly without lowering protection for incumbents?

Those are measurable service questions. A public process can report request age, decision time, rescheduling frequency and the reason a file returned for changes, while protecting sensitive operational details. That would tell launch providers whether the bottleneck is availability, incomplete submissions, agency review or the mechanics of changing a date.

The FCC and NTIA have different jobs. The agencies should make the hand-offs visible enough that an operator can tell who owns the next decision and what evidence is missing. If that answer is buried in another inbox, the countdown keeps running while the paperwork searches for its desk.

The five-megahertz arithmetic deserves a correction. The larger test is whether the institutions can turn licensed spectrum into predictable, coordinated access for a launch whose schedule may change before the rocket does.

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