WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on

Friday upheld the decision of the Federal Communications

Commission to approve a SpaceX plan to deploy thousands of

Starlink satellites to provide space-based broadband internet

service.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia

rejected a legal challenge from DISH Network and an

environmental group composed of amateur astronomers and dark-sky

enthusiasts. DISH had argued the FCC did not adequately consider

the risk of signal interference with other satellites, while the

astronomer group said the FCC had not followed an environmental

law in its approval. The court in 2022 rejected a separate

challenge to SpaceX's plan to deploy satellites at a lower Earth

orbit than planned.

In late 2022, the FCC approved SpaceX's request to deploy up

to 7,500 satellites after the commission in 2018 approved SpaceX

plans to deploy up to 4,425 first-generation satellites.

SpaceX has sought approval to operate a network of

29,988 satellites, to be known as its "second-generation" or

Gen2 Starlink constellation to beam internet to areas with

little or no internet access.

The three-judge panel said the FCC "decision to license

SpaceX's Gen2 Starlink satellites was lawful and reasonable."

DISH did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2022, the FCC turned down applications from

billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX and LTD Broadband for funds that

had been tentatively awarded in 2020 under the commission's

Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a multibillion dollar program in

which SpaceX was poised to receive $885.5 million to beam

satellite internet to U.S. regions with little to no internet

connections.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel defended the decision at a

U.S. House hearing this week. The FCC in December

said the

decision was based on the Starlink failure to meet basic

program requirements and that Starlink could not demonstrate it

could deliver promised service.