American authorities have imposed a fine – the first of its kind – on a television satellite operator for abandoning waste in space, the American telecommunications regulator announced.
The operator Dish was fined US$150,000 for “not properly de-orbiting” a satellite named EchoStar-7in orbit since 2002, according to a press release from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
“This constitutes a first in the regulation of waste in space by the Commission, which has developed its efforts towards satellites,” adds the FCC.
There are half a million pieces of debris the size of a marble and a hundred million measuring around one millimeter, according to a specialized UN agency. This debris is potentially dangerous for spacecraft.
According to the FCC, Dish had not respected the altitude agreed with the Commission to place its geostationary satellite which was reaching the end of its life. This altitude, lower than agreed, “was likely to pose problems with orbital debris”.
Dish committed in 2012 to raising the altitude of the satellite to 300 km above its operational trajectory, explains the FCC. But with the drop in fuel levels, the company limited itself to bringing its satellite to an altitude of a little more than 120 km above its trajectory.
“As satellite use becomes more common and the space economy accelerates, we need to ensure that operators meet their commitments,” said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A . Equal.
He called this decision a “breakthrough,” in which the FCC “very clearly” shows its authority and “its ability to implement its vital rules on space waste.”
“Explicitly exempt”
The settlement reached by the FCC and the company “includes an admission of liability by the company and an agreement to follow a compliance plan as well as the payment of a fine of $150,000.”
Contacted by AFP, Dish rejected the FCC’s assertions.
“As the enforcement office acknowledges in the agreement, the EchoStar-7 satellite was an old device (launched in 2002) that had been explicitly exempt from FCC regulations requiring a minimum orbit abandonment,” said a company spokesperson in a statement.
“Furthermore, the office has not made any finding that EchoStar-7 posed any safety concerns related to its orbital debris,” he added.
Faced with the proliferation of private actors operating in space, the issue of space debris also concerns the American air regulator (FAA). The agency recently announced that it would require all private companies launching rockets to have a solution for disposing of the upper stage of their launcher — for example by returning it to the Earth’s atmosphere, or by placing it in an orbit away from Earth.
This new regulation, which has yet to be definitively adopted, already exists for government space missions. “If left unchecked, the accumulation of orbital debris will increase the risk of collisions and clutter orbits used for human spaceflight and satellites,” the FAA said in a statement in mid-September.
In December 2022, a Soyuz MS-22 capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS) was damaged by the impact of a small meteorite.
A Chinese satellite was brushed against in early 2022 by debris from a Russian satellite destroyed the previous year during an “extremely dangerous” incident according to Beijing.
Of the 14,000 satellites in orbit, around 35% have been launched over the past three years and 100,000 more are expected in the coming decade, according to the UN.