spacetoday.net: Startup accused of launching satellites without FCC authorization

Posted: Sun, Mar 18, 2018, 11:19 AM ET (1519 GMT)
A small startup is in trouble with the FCC after launching four picosatellites without authorization. Swarm Technologies, a company still in stealth mode, flew the four SpaceBee satellites, each one a fourth the size of a single-unit cubesat, as secondary payloads on a PSLV launch in January. However, the FCC had denied an application from the company for an experimental license a month earlier, citing concerns that the satellites posed a collision threat to others because their small size made them difficult to track. The FCC last week revoked an authorization for four more of the company's satellites, which were to launch in the near future on a Rocket Lab Electron mission, citing the unauthorized launch. The company has not commented on the incident.