From PC Mag: If you ask the FCC for permission to launch and operate four small satellites and your request is denied, what do you do? If you're Swarm Technologies, you launch them anyway and deal with the consequences later. Those consequences have now been decided upon, and they include payment of a $900,000 fine.
Swarm, which was founded by former Google and Apple engineers back in 2016, has a goal of launching 100 satellites to act as a low-cost internet service. As Reuters reports, early stages of the project involved launching four small communication satellites back in January. The FCC rejected Swarm's request to launch and operate them because there was a doubt regarding the company's ability to track the satellites.
After receiving the rejection, Swarm launched the satellites from India a month later, which in the FCC's eyes classes as an "unauthorized deployment and operation of satellites" and placed both government and commercial satellite operations at risk. The commission also discovered "unauthorized operation of earth ground stations, and other unauthorized operation and testing of radio frequency equipment," which included "unauthorized weather balloon-to-ground station tests and unauthorized tests of its satellite and ground station equipment."
It's important to note that Swarm only admitted to the unauthorized launch after the FCC had discovered it had happened. In order to settle the case, Swarm has agreed to pay a $900,000 civil penalty as well as implementing a five-year compliance plan.
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