A new NGSO satellite alliance called SpaceConnect has officially launched in Washington, D.C., bringing together some of the biggest names in non-geostationary orbit communications — Amazon, Iridium, Telesat, and Globalstar. There’s just one glaring omission: SpaceX, the company that operates more low Earth orbit satellites than all of them put together, and then some.
- The new NGSO satellite alliance SpaceConnect includes Amazon, Iridium, Telesat, and Globalstar — but not SpaceX.
- SpaceX operates over 10,000 NGSO satellites, roughly 22 times more than all SpaceConnect members combined.
- SpaceConnect will focus on spectrum access, licensing reform, and international policy including the next World Radiocommunication Conference.
- The alliance is open to Earth observation operators, signalling ambitions beyond broadband connectivity from the start.
Table of Contents
Who’s In — and Who’s Conspicuously Out
SpaceConnect’s founding membership reads like a who’s who of the satellite broadband race, with one very deliberate asterisk. Amazon, which is still building out its Project Kuiper constellation and has deployed 367 of its planned 3,200-plus satellites, is an anchor member of this NGSO satellite alliance. So are Iridium and Telesat — the latter being the only non-U.S. member, a Canadian company whose 198-satellite broadband constellation will rely on SpaceX for launches starting next year, in an irony that’s hard to miss. Globalstar is also on board, a company currently at the centre of an Amazon acquisition bid and perhaps better known to consumers for powering the emergency satellite messaging feature on Apple’s latest iPhones.
And then there’s SpaceX. With more than 10,000 Starlink satellites already in orbit, the company accounts for roughly 22 times the total satellite count of every SpaceConnect member combined. It didn’t join this NGSO satellite alliance. It also didn’t comment when asked.
David Redl, the former head of the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) who’s been appointed SpaceConnect’s executive director, was careful not to make the absence sound like a snub. ‘As a trade association, we represent a segment of the market, and they’re certainly a big player in the segment,’ Redl said during a media briefing. ‘But they’re by no means the only player in the segment.’ He also confirmed the NGSO satellite alliance would welcome SpaceX if the company wanted in. Whether Elon Musk’s operation has any interest is another matter entirely.
The NGSO Satellite Alliance SpaceX Doesn’t Need
Here’s the uncomfortable truth for SpaceConnect: SpaceX probably doesn’t need this NGSO satellite alliance. Starlink is already the dominant force in low Earth orbit broadband, generating revenue, scaling launches, and — through Musk’s proximity to the current U.S. administration — wielding a form of political influence that no trade association can easily replicate. SpaceX has never been a natural joiner of industry coalitions. It skipped the Satellite Industry Association too, which counts Amazon, Globalstar, Iridium, and Telesat among its members.
That’s actually the point Redl is making, even if he’s too diplomatic to say it that bluntly. This NGSO satellite alliance isn’t positioning itself as the voice of the entire NGSO sector — it’s positioning itself as the voice of everyone else in the NGSO sector. The companies that are building real constellations, investing billions, and trying to compete in a market where one player has a two-decade head start in satellite count.
Julie Kearney, SpaceConnect’s general counsel and the first-ever chief of the FCC’s Space Bureau, framed the mission in appropriately policy-speak terms. The NGSO satellite alliance will bring deep expertise and a global perspective to advancing policies that foster innovation while ensuring safe and responsible operations in low Earth orbit, she said in the June 24 announcement. The association is targeting ‘updated licensing processes, efficient spectrum access and industry-led best practices’ — all areas where the current regulatory framework has struggled to keep pace with a market that’s added thousands of satellites in just a few years.
Spectrum Wars and the EU Factor
The most immediately consequential work for this NGSO satellite alliance may be on the international stage. Redl specifically flagged the World Radiocommunication Conference, which next convenes next year and is where countries negotiate the spectrum rules that govern how satellites can operate globally. It’s a slow, arcane process — but the outcomes are binding and can determine whether a constellation can actually do business in key markets.
Closer to home for European operators, Redl took a pointed shot at the EU Space Act, which is currently working its way through the European legislative process. He described it as being ‘designed to foster protectionism for particular nationalities of operators’ — a characterisation that will raise eyebrows in Brussels but reflects genuine concerns from U.S.-based satellite companies about market access. If the EU Space Act ends up favouring European operators in licensing or spectrum coordination, that’s a direct commercial threat to Amazon Kuiper and others trying to serve European customers.
Satellite power limits are another flashpoint Redl highlighted — an area where NGSO and geostationary satellite operators have been at each other’s throats for years. The core tension is straightforward: NGSO constellations need to transmit at certain power levels to serve customers effectively, but those signals can interfere with geostationary satellites that operate in similar frequency bands. The Satellite Industry Association, which represents both camps, has had to navigate that conflict carefully. This NGSO satellite alliance won’t have to. It can simply advocate for what NGSO operators want.
Bigger Than Broadband
One detail buried in SpaceConnect’s launch announcement is worth paying attention to: Redl said the association isn’t exclusively tied to connectivity. That’s a meaningful signal. The NGSO market is expanding well beyond broadband — Earth observation companies like Planet Labs and Spire Global operate significant low-orbit constellations, and the space situational awareness, maritime tracking, and IoT connectivity sectors all have substantial NGSO footprints.
If SpaceConnect successfully expands into those segments, this NGSO satellite alliance becomes a considerably more powerful lobbying force. A trade group that speaks only for broadband operators is a niche player. One that can credibly claim to represent the broader NGSO ecosystem — potentially hundreds of operators across multiple sectors — has a much stronger seat at the table in Geneva, Brussels, or Washington.
For now, though, the NGSO satellite alliance is starting with what it has: four well-resourced members, experienced leadership with deep regulatory connections, and a clear mandate to push back on rules that treat NGSO constellations the same as the geostationary satellites that dominated the industry for decades. Whether SpaceX eventually decides to join — or simply watches from its uniquely dominant position — will say a lot about how seriously Musk’s company takes the idea of shaping the rules rather than just operating around them.
Source: SpaceNews
