The Megaconstellation Monthly is Quilty Space’s monthly news roundup on the NGSO satellite systems shaping today’s LEO satcom market, from Starlink’s global broadband machine to AST SpaceMobile’s direct-to-device ambitions. Each edition curates the key developments across the satcom stack and anchors them with a Quilty QuickTake on what it all means.
 
A glimpse of a few of the stories we covered in this month’s Mega:
 
PWSA: production wins: Sierra Space hit a structural milestone on Tranche 2 Tracking early, Lockheed tapped Terran again, and SDA is already shopping for Tranche 3 Ground Entry Point scale-up.
 
Congress resurrects T3 Transport: Appropriators zeroed out MILNET funding, tossed SDA $50M to preserve “warfighter-centric” PWSA transport, and left the acquisition pipeline in “awaiting guidance” limbo. Alive politically, stalled operationally.
 
GAO is not subtle: The watchdog basically told SDA: be more realistic, be more transparent, and stop pretending integration risk is easy. Optical crosslinks remain the long pole, spiral development is morphing into risk deferral, and lifecycle cost visibility is still TBD.
 
Golden Dome got a three-summer schedule and a lot of closed doors: Guetlein laid out phased demos (C2 “glue” in 2026, interceptor integration in 2027, IOC-style demo in 2028) and explained why everything went quiet.
 
SpaceX filed its orbital data center plan and brought Kardashev Civilizations to the FCC: A million-satellite on-orbit compute constellation, mostly optical, riding Starlink’s ground ecosystem, Ka-band as backup, and waiver asks that translate to: “approve now, we’ll route around problems later.”
 
Starlink DTC got a regulatory boost: FCC modified | expanded Gen2 to 15,000 satellites; Kyivstar cited 3M registered users and ~1.2M satellite SMS; T-Mobile hyped daily “off-grid” usage for 150K Americans and support for 34 apps.
 
More BEAD drama: SpaceX asks for an 11th-hour contract rewrite and NTIA (allegedly) said absolutely not: SpaceX floated a LEO subgrant capacity rider that tilts payments toward Starlink availability over adoption; with the subtext that states must subsidize what SpaceX already offers. Amazon Leo’s second-mover upside is on full display with this ask.
 
Aviation stayed on its Starlink adoption arc, with one loud “nope:” Qatar said ~120 aircraft equipped; Lufthansa Group plans ~850 aircraft starting 2H 2026; Gulf Air targets ~45 aircraft; Emirates aims ~150 by end-2026; Ryanair publicly rejects the antenna drag | fuel math.
 
Policy whiplash tour: South Africa, China, Uganda. SA’s ownership workaround debate became a political brawl that metastasized to X; China’s shipboard enforcement turns compliance into a managed-service upsell for integrators; and Uganda geo-blocked Starlink over licensing and import controls.
 
Big LEO is turning into a procedural fight: Globalstar and Iridium are lawyering up to protect their incumbency while SpaceX is treating “international authority” as the latest end run.
 
The “FCC shot clock” bill is back: Sen. Cruz reintroduced the Streamlining Act: one-year decision deadlines, capped extensions, and “deemed granted” if the FCC’s timeline slips.
 
Amazon Leo admitted the obvious: rockets are the bottleneck. It asked the FCC to extend or waive its Gen-1 50% milestone due this Summer. Amazon is projecting ~700 sats by July while highlighting a now-massive launch book across four providers.
 
Blue Origin’s “TeraWave” filing: Enterprise transport: point-to-point pipes, backbone economics, and competition with fiber routes and private networks.
 
AST SpaceMoves: International S-band authority ask, U.S. 2 GHz modification attempt, STAs for testing, BlueBird 7 teed up, and a SHIELD IDIQ entry.
 
Hanwha bolted together a sovereign LEO starter kit: MoUs with MDA (AURORA bus) and Telesat (Lightspeed terminals), framed as optionality and speed for a Korea defense concept (K-LEO), nested in broader Canada–ROK cooperation.
 
Eutelsat | OneWeb kept buying time (and satellites): Airbus got a 340-satellite follow-on order (440 total with the prior 100), SpaceRISE brought Ka-mil into use, MaiaSpace launch deal, and France blocked the ground antenna business sale.
 
5G NTN: Airbus SpaceRAN entered the chat: A standards-based, regenerative payload with onboard gNodeB ambitions, with an impressive partner list and a 2027–2028 demo goal.
 
Lynk’s Philippines test: SMS plus basic web access on unmodified phones, framed around disaster resiliency, with commercial aspirations next year.
 
Nigeria opened the door for Leo: NCC issued seven-year permits to Amazon Leo (FSS/MSS/ESIM), BeetleSat, and Satelio IoT Services, in a market where Starlink is the #2 ISP.