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. The court

in 2022 rejected an separate challenge to SpaceX's plan to

deploy satellites at a lower Earth orbit than planned.