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"Earlier this month, SpaceX launched three more satellites for Swarm on a Falcon 9 rocket after winning FCC approval."

This feels like a pretty important point - Swarm got slapped for their mistakes with that launch, but they're already back on track if the FCC already granted permission (what must have been months ago) for their most recent satellites. I wonder if it was just down to confusion on Swarm's part on how the rules applied.

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I am pretty sure that Swarm knew that they were breaking the rules. They submitted an FCC license, were notified that the license was rejected, and decided to launch anyways.

I think part of the reason that they were able to still get licenses approved is that they agreed to more oversight from the FCC. Also, after launching the satellites Swarm was able to show the FCC that they were able to track the satellites, which was the original reason that FCC denied the license. So it seems like the FCC had to say "we were wrong, but you still broke the law so here is a fine and then we will continue on with life."

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