The FCC is cracking down on spent satellites left in LEO. In a FCC Space Debris report and order released yesterday, the commission revealed plans to cut the post-mission disposal time from the currently recommended 25 years to five years.
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The growing debris problem: The DoD’s Space Surveillance Network currently tracks ~27,000 pieces of debris larger than 5 cm in LEO. NASA estimates that there are more than 100M total pieces of debris floating around up there. And the number of active satellites is increasing.
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Over the next decade, if government licenses and financial statements are anything to go off of, tens of thousands of satellites are destined for high-demand tracks in LEO. Mitigating the possibility of collisions between objects in space is critical for protecting those operational satellites—and getting spent satellites out of the way in a timely manner is a step towards preventing unnecessary collisions.
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Taking out the trash: The FCC’s draft rule would require satellite operators to deorbit their spacecraft within five years post-mission.
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If adopted, the rule would require more satellite operators to adopt onboard propulsion systems. Until now, a satellite circling the Earth at 500 km wouldn’t necessarily need its own propulsion, since it would naturally deorbit due to atmospheric drag after ~10 years. That won’t always fly anymore with a 5-year deorbit requirement.
The full FCC space debris report can be found here: FCC Space Debris Report
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