US government issues first-ever space debris penalty to Dish Network::Dish to pay $150,000 for failing to properly dispose of satellite and violating the FCC’s anti-space debris rule
150,000 is nothing to a company who built their own satellite network
This should be an ongoing 150k a month until the satellite is decommissioned in order for it to be anywhere near meaningful
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Dish Network has to pay $150,000 to the commission over its failure to de-orbit its EchoStar-7 satellite which has been in space for more than two decades.
“As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments,” said Enforcement bureau chief Loyaan A Egal, in the statement announcing the Dish settlement.
“This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules.”
In 2002, Dish launched the satellite into geostationary orbit – a field of space that begins 22,000 miles (36,000km) above Earth.
They say that the more old material that stays in orbit, the harder it is for incoming satellites to start and complete new missions.
“Right now there are thousands of metric tons of orbital debris in the air above – and it is going to grow,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a 2022 statement that accompanied the announcement of the rule.
The original article contains 371 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 54%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Should US law apply in orbit? (not saying something shouldn’t be done about space junk)
Nice in concept.
In practice this is useless- a $150k fine when removing the satellite will someday cost millions.
It’s also worth noting that de-orbiting was never the plan here. Geosynchronous satellites are too far up to make that practical- at 22,000 mi altitude, the amount of delta-v necessary for a deorbit is gigantic. So instead the satellite ‘boosts’ up to a ‘graveyard’ orbit about 300km above the geosynchronous ring.
Dish only boosted it 122km above the geosynchronous ring. Thus the fine. In practice this satellite will probably cause nobody any problems.But not the moron that launched a car?
