Updated May 28, 2024. Originally posted May 10, 2024.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to reopen the public comment period on potential further amendments to its orbital debris mitigation rules, providing space industry stakeholders with a new opportunity to provide input on regulations with far-reaching implications. Further illustrating the FCC’s commitment to leadership in regulating commercial space operations, stakeholders have until Thursday, June 27 to provide input on the agency’s regulation of orbital debris. Today’s Federal Register sets this comment deadline, as well as a cutoff of Friday, July 12 for any reply comments.
The relevant action is a Public Notice issued by the FCC’s Space Bureau, which the agency created last year as part of an effort to increase its role in regulating the fast-growing space economy. The Public Notice seeks to refresh the FCC’s record concerning proposed amendments to its orbital debris mitigation rules, which generally require that U.S. satellite operators (and non-U.S.-licensed satellite operators seeking U.S. market access) submit to the FCC satellite design and operational strategies intended to minimize the risk of orbital debris.
The FCC last sought comment on these issues in April 2020, when it expanded and refined its existing orbital debris mitigation framework. In a corresponding move, the FCC also sought input, through a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM), on additional rule amendments and proposals related to, among other issues:
- How satellite operators may demonstrate that they have adequately assessed and limited the probability of accidental explosions;
- How the FCC should evaluate the collision risk presented by large, multi-satellite constellations;
- Whether the FCC should adopt a requirement that all non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites planned for operation above a certain altitude maintain propulsion capabilities designated for station-keeping and collision-avoidance maneuvers;
- How the FCC should consider human casualty risk, particularly with regard to large, multi-satellite constellations; and
- Whether, as a condition of an FCC satellite license, the FCC should require satellite operators to commit to indemnifying the U.S. government for any liability from claims for damage resulting from satellite operations.
The comment cycle for these issues (and others related to orbital debris) ended in November 2020, and the Space Bureau now seeks to refresh the record given the rapid development of the commercial space industry over the past 3.5 years. (In September 2022, the FCC acted on proposals in the FNRPM related to post-mission disposal deadlines, resulting in the adoption of a new rule that requires operators of NGSO systems operating in low-Earth orbit (LEO) to dispose of these satellites within five years of mission completion.)
Of particular interest to the Space Bureau is stakeholder input on orbital debris mitigation practices for satellite constellations. With the proliferation of NGSO constellations involving large numbers of satellites, these systems increasingly are the focus of regulatory scrutiny, both in the U.S. and before international regulators.
On this issue, the Public Notice asks, as threshold matter, whether the FCC should evaluate the collision risk presented by a multi-satellite NGSO constellation on a system-wide or per-satellite basis. The Public Notice seeks comment on a host of related issues, including:
- If the FCC were to evaluate collision risk on a system-wide basis, should it adopt a safe harbor approach that would allow an operator to show compliance by demonstrating that its constellation meets some pre-determined system-wide collision probability standard (e.g., the U.S. Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices’ (ODMSP) 0.001 probability of collision metric)?
- What factors should the FCC consider in establishing a safe harbor (or bright-line rule) for its evaluation of collision risk for NGSO satellite constellations? For example, the Public Notice identifies the following as potentially relevant factors:
- Maneuvering capabilities and reliability of the satellite(s)
- Orbital lifetime
- Number of satellites in the system and, potentially, the constellation replenishment rate (i.e., the rate at which the constellation operator would be launching new satellites to replace aging or defunct satellites)
- Size of individual satellites
- Should the FCC assess the potential risk presented by the failure of satellites to complete planned disposal by using an “object-years” metric that considers “the number of years each failed satellite would remain in orbit, summed across any other failed satellites that were part of the satellite [constellation]”? (Several commenters have proposed 100 “object-years” as a potential metric for the FCC’s risk assessment.)
- How should the FCC evaluate the likelihood—and potential impact—of individual satellite maneuvering failures within a larger, multi-satellite constellation?
- If an NGSO constellation operator failed to meet any safe harbor adopted for the FCC’s collision risk assessment, what should the FCC require in its more-detailed review of the operator’s plans to mitigate its constellation’s total collision risk?
In addition, the Public Notice encourages stakeholders to submit new or additional information related to the current orbital debris environment and the state of the satellite industry generally.
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The above summary of the Public Notice is not comprehensive. Stakeholders interested in providing input to the FCC on its orbital debris mitigation rules should consult counsel if they have questions about the Public Notice or the FCC’s orbital debris regulations.