FCC satellite space station bonds.
From $5,000.
A space station licensee must post a surety bond within 30 days of the grant under 47 CFR § 25.165, or the Federal Communications Commission license becomes null and void automatically. It pays the U.S. Treasury if you surrender the license or miss the launch-and-operate milestone in § 25.164. Premium is 1% of the bond amount.
Trusted by industry leaders
Three steps. One sitting.
The 30-day posting window is short, and a missed deadline voids the license. Here is the whole path from grant to a bond on file with the Commission:
Apply online
Your company details, the bond amount your GSO or NGSO formula requires, and the effective date — that is the application. Have the license grant date and call sign handy.
Issued
The bond is priced at 1% of the amount you enter. The application includes a soft-pull credit consent that never affects your score. Multimillion-dollar amounts can route to a brief underwriter review before issue.
Send a copy to the FCC
The executed bond names the U.S. Treasury as beneficiary. Provide the Commission with a copy of the bond, including all details and conditions, as § 25.165(b) requires.
What it is and who needs it.
What the FCC satellite bond actually guarantees
The FCC grants orbital slots and spectrum on the promise that the satellites will actually fly. The § 25.165 surety bond puts money behind that promise. It is a performance bond on the milestones in 47 CFR § 25.164: a GSO licensee must launch, position and operate its space station within five years of grant, and an NGSO licensee must launch and operate 50 percent of its authorized satellites within six years. Surrender the license before the milestone, or miss it, and the licensee is in default; the surety pays the U.S. Treasury.
The amount escalates with time. For an NGSO system the payout is $1,000,000 + $4,000,000 × D/2192, and for a GSO system $1,000,000 + $2,000,000 × D/1827, where D is the number of days from grant to surrender (capped at 2,192 days for NGSO and 1,827 days for GSO), with the result rounded to the nearest $10,000. A system with both NGSO and GSO satellites in the same bands uses the NGSO formula. Because the bond on file must cover what would be owed if the license were surrendered that day, licensees either post the full end-point amount up front or step the bond up at least yearly. The bond must come from a surety that is acceptable under 31 U.S.C. 9304 (a Treasury-listed surety), and the Commission releases it once it finds the milestone met.
A change is coming. In FCC 26-47 (Space Modernization for the 21st Century, adopted July 22, 2026) the Commission replaced Part 25 with a new Part 100. Once Part 100 takes effect, the bond will apply only to NGSO systems licensed in a processing round, the GSO bond goes away, and many current licensees in good standing that were not authorized in a processing round are generally relieved of their bonds. The FCC is explicit that the new rules do not apply retroactively: every operator must keep complying with the current bond until the Part 100 Effective Date, which had not been set as of September 2026.
You need this bond if you are
One application, then your bond on file.
Submit the application with the bond amount your license formula requires. Standard amounts issue the moment you pay; multimillion-dollar amounts may get a brief underwriter review first, well inside your 30-day window.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Federal bonds.
License granted. The 30-day clock is running.
Priced at 1% of the bond amount, with your exact price at the application. Enter your formula amount, get the bond, and send the FCC its copy. Free until issued.