The main mission of the gr-satellites project is to provide GNU Radio decoders for all (or most) satellites that transmit on amateur radio spectrum. This is in agreement with the self-training and technical experimentation purposes that define the amateur service in the ITU Radio Regulations, and with the principle of not encoding amateur transmissions with the purpose of obscuring their meaning.
gr-satellites can also be a useful tool for commercial satellite missions, and it is in fact used in several such missions. However, the gr-satellites project reckons and respects that some commercial satellite operators might not be approving of amateur radio operators and amateur satellite observers decoding data transmitted by their satellites (and this act might be illegal in some jurisdictions).
The gr-satellites project will only accept code contributions (whether in the form of SatYAML files or GNU Radio blocks) specifically intended for the reception of a commercial satellite if those contributions are endorsed or acknowledged by the satellite operator or owner. This restriction only affects amateurs using gr-satellites to receive commercial satellites. Commercial satellite operators are encouraged and welcome to upstream code contributions to gr-satellites regarding their own satellites, if they wish to do so.
Code contributions which are generic in nature, such as GNU Radio blocks that implement support for a radio that could potentially be used in amateur and commercial missions, are not affected by this restriction and are always accepted in gr-satellites.
The gr-satellites project also acknowledges that there exist many satellites that transmit on amateur radio spectrum that are not amateur in nature, and that these satellites should not be using amateur spectrum. Some of these satellites are fully supported by gr-satellites. This is in line with the common practice of self-monitoring of amateur radio spectrum by amateur operators. Hopefully the existence of these decoders and a community that uses them to monitor the missions will be another incentive that makes non-amateur missions avoid using amateur spectrum in the future. For this reason, gr-satellites will continue trying to support any satellite that transmits on amateur radio spectrum, regardless of the nature of the mission, and accepts all contributions to this end.