FCC Adopts ‘Five-Year Rule’ for Disposing of Old Satellites

UPDATE 9/29: The FCC announced today(Opens in a new window) that it’s adopting the new rule and shortening the decommissioned satellite deorbiting time to just five years.

The rule doesn’t come into effect immediately: “These new rules will also afford satellite companies a transition period of two years. The mission length and deorbit timeline for any given satellite are established through its application process with the FCC’s International Bureau.”

Original Story 9/9:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing to reduce the amount of time operators have to dispose of decommissioned satellites from 25 years to just five years.

As The Register reports(Opens in a new window), the FCC released a Fact Sheet(Opens in a new window) yesterday entitled “Space Innovation; Mitigation of Orbital Debris in the New Space Age.” It details how there are currently over 4,800 satellites operating in orbit around the Earth and “many more to come,” which will increase the chances of collisions significantly.

With that in mind, the current 25-year rule for an operator to perform an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere of a decommissioned satellite no longer seems practical. Instead, the FCC wants to adopt a “five-year rule,” whereby disposals should be carried out “as soon as practicable” with five years being the upper limit.

The new regulations would also apply to space stations that either end their mission in low-Earth orbit (below 2,000km/1,242 miles) or pass through it. All US-licensed satellites and systems would need to adhere to the new regulations, but so would any non-US-licensed satellites that wish to operate in US markets.

There is apparently broad support for the change, including from SpaceX. However, when commercial operators were asked to comment on the proposal last month it was pointed out that the change would have minimal impact. Citing a NASA Orbital Debris Program Office report(Opens in a new window), it’s claimed the new time limit will only lead to a 10% reduction in orbital debris over the next 200 years. NASA deems that “not a statistically significant benefit.”