A U.S. federal agency ushered in a stricter era of space junk enforcement after it handed out its first-ever fine.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Monday that its investigators had concluded that Dish Network, a Colorado-based television provider, failed to deorbit its EchoStar-7 satellite correctly. The satellite has been in space for two decades.
A settlement was reportedly reached in which Dish Network would admit liability, pay a penalty of $150,000, and adhere to a plan for the satellite’s removal. Currently, the satellite is in a disposal orbit approximately 110 miles adrift from where it should have been decommissioned.
Space junk puts future satellite launches and missions at risk.
“Right now there are thousands of metric tons of orbital debris in the air above — and it is going to grow,” explained FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement to The Guardian. “We need to address it. Because if we don’t, this space junk could constrain new opportunities.”
Although the FCC adopted a rule last year requiring satellite operators to dispose of their satellites within five years of mission completion, the recent fine put on Dish Network is a landmark penalty that suggests a new era of enforcement has begun.
“This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules,” explained Loyaan Egal, the FCC’s enforcement bureau chief, in the announcement.
The Department of Defense’s Space Surveillance Network is currently tracking upwards of 27,000 pieces of space debris traveling at extremely high speeds of roughly 15,700 miles per hour.
Such debris poses a significant threat to spaceflight, which has picked up in frequency in light of the new space race in the private sector, as covered by The Dallas Express.
A piece of space junk delayed the launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station in late August, and NASA recently launched a competition to help find creative ways to track and clear space junk.
