Wow did not expect this coming from a democrat controlled congress, very interesting: QuoteSCIENCE COMMITTEE LEADERS SEND LETTER TO FCC ON ORBITAL DEBRIS MITIGATION STANDARDSThe letter also said "As the bipartisan leadership of the Science Committee and our Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee wrote to your predecessor in April 2020,2 the Commission does not have clear authority from Congress, a fact which remains true today.", could be very useful in beating back space NIMBYs' attempt to kill constellations via FCC.
SCIENCE COMMITTEE LEADERS SEND LETTER TO FCC ON ORBITAL DEBRIS MITIGATION STANDARDS
Quote from: su27k on 09/29/2022 02:04 amcould be very useful in beating back space NIMBYs' attempt to kill constellations via FCC.The constellation operators (specifically Iridium, Oneweb, and SpaceX, via the AIAA) are the ones proposing the more stringent deorbit rules, not opposing them.
could be very useful in beating back space NIMBYs' attempt to kill constellations via FCC.
If you prefer to think in terms of political cliches, you need to pick a different set for this specific issue. "Democrat" and "NIMBY" do not fit the situation. The incumbent constellations operators asked the FCC to do this, so the proper political cliche would be "the oligopoly is acting to suppress smaller newcomers".
The Federal Communications Commission adopted a new rule Sept. 29 that will shorten the time for satellite operators to deorbit low Earth orbit satellites from 25 to 5 years.Commissioners voted 4-0 to adopt the draft rule, published earlier this month, intended to address growing debris in LEO. Under the new rule, spacecraft that end their lives in orbits at altitudes of 2,000 kilometers or below will have to deorbit as soon as practicable and no more than five years after the end of their mission. The rule would apply to satellites launched two years after the order is adopted, and include both U.S.-licensed satellites as well as those licensed by other jurisdictions but seeking U.S. market access.The rule replaces a longstanding guideline that called for deorbiting satellites up to 25 years after the end of their mission. “Twenty-five years is a long time. There is no reason to wait that long anymore, especially in low Earth orbit,” Jessica Rosenworcel, FCC chairwoman, said at the meeting.
In a talk at the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference here Sept. 30, Richard DalBello said the FCC’s approval of new regulations the day before, intended to limit the creation of orbital debris by requiring satellites in LEO to be deorbited no more than five years after the end of their life, illustrates the gaps in domestic space regulation.“I think the FCC, for their part, has pushed the boundaries of their authorities pretty aggressively,” he said when asked about what agency should have oversight for issues like that, as his office works to create a civil space traffic management capability.“Although I certainly congratulate them on the depth of their intellectual work,” he said of the FCC and its new order, “a lot of the things that they articulated are probably, arguably, outside their job jar.”
SPACECOM head Gen. Jim Dickinson today praised the FCC's decision to drop the deadline for LEO-sat disposal from 25 to 5 yrs. "That's a remarkable achievement in itself," he told me, @BreakingDefense and, @jacqklimas @FCC @CommerceinSpace @US_SpaceCom
The FCC’s rule applies mainly to US companies, or at least to anyone who wants to launch a satellite that needs a license from the agency to use a slice of the electromagnetic spectrum for communication. The rule doesn’t have the force of law, and it doesn’t yet have backing from NASA or Congress. But McKnight sees it as an important shift that other policymakers may follow. “I actually think it should be a one-year rule. The five-year rule is just an intermediate point,” says McKnight, senior technical fellow at LeoLabs, a space-debris-tracking company based in Menlo Park, California. “I’m very happy to see the FCC taking leadership, saying we really need to be responsible, and we need to look at sustained, safe space operations.”
Can someone tell me where Congress delegated such rule making authority to the FCC? If there is none, it is likely subject to a court challenge should someone care to do so.