spacetoday.net: FCC defers decision on new orbital debris regulations

Posted: Sun, Apr 26, 2020, 12:43 PM ET (1643 GMT)
The FCC deferred a decision Thursday on a wide range of new orbital debris regulations. Commissioners were set to vote on new, more stringent regulations, which faced criticism from many in industry as well as Congress. However, the FCC decided to adopt only a small subset of those proposals, involving quantifying collision risks and probability of successfully deorbiting satellites. They instead chose to seek additional comment on other rules, including those that would require operators to indemnify the U.S. government, set collision risk standards more stringent than those used by NASA, and requiring satellites flying an altitudes above 400 kilometers to be maneuverable. That process could also open the door for revisiting the existing requirement that satellites be deorbited with 25 years of the end of their mission, a timeframe many argue is too long.