Orbital Debris Action Likely on Hold Until a 5th FCC Member
A second pass by the FCC at updating orbital debris rules might have to wait until a fifth commissioner is confirmed, space experts and commission staff told us. Commissioners approved an orbital debris rules update order 5-0 in April 2020, with some contentious issues in the draft moved to an accompanying Further NPRM (see 2004230040). An agency official said a draft order is potentially not a huge priority for Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, parked behind bigger priorities and not being vigorously pushed by staff. The chairwoman's office will have to move on it at some point, given the mega-constellation boom, the official said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
FAA is doing a regulatory update on orbital debris. Office of Commercial Space Transportation Policy and Innovation Division Manager Steph Earle said at November’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee meeting the agency anticipates putting out an NPRM this spring regarding orbital debris mitigation for upper-stage launch vehicles. He said the aim is to bring rules in line with standard practices.
FAA's proceeding wouldn't necessarily be a roadblock to the FCC acting, though people might be waiting to see the results of the FAA effort, said George Washington University Space Policy Institute Director Scott Pace. He said the White House and National Space Council would likely want to touch base with the FCC when the agency acts on a draft order. A fifth commissioner and White House conversation would likely help the FCC make progress, he said.
One possible holdup of any FCC proceeding might be a lack of enough data, Pace said. Numerous operators made claims in the docket, and particularly useful data might be found from space situational awareness firms like LeoLabs and Exoanalytics, he said. The FCC didn't comment Friday.
The FCC with four commissioners has been able to tackle issues like SpaceX's license modification last year (see 2104270027), so lack of a fifth doesn't seem to be a holdup, said Charity Weeden, Astrospace vice president-global space policy. There might be sticking issues in the FNPRM, such as indemnification of the U.S. by space operators, that haven't been resolved. And President Joe Biden has made space sustainability a priority. The FAA's orbital debris NPRM won’t necessarily create confusion, but orbital debris ultimately has to be a whole-of-goverment priority, Weeden said.
A satellite company lawyer active in the FCC FNPRM proceeding said there doesn't seem to be enough eighth-floor support for an order. She said hurdles include lack of industry consensus on numerous issues and the technical nature of much of the proceeding. A draft order likely won't come up until there's a full commission, and even then a new commissioner would need time to get up to speed, she said.
Richard Parker, head of the space team at insurer Canopius, said the current orbital debris regulatory regime is an impediment to an insurance market for low earth orbit satellite operations. He said most LEO operators don't get insurance. "Once you take out the people not making any money," such as science missions, "the people making money in LEO are few and far between," he said. LEO mega constellations also generally don't get insurance on their satellites because those constellations are robust and can withstand losses of a limited number of satellites that are intended to be used for only a few years anyway, he said. Parker said if the LEO market expands, and there's a regulatory environment that requires satellites have propulsion and perhaps grappling fixtures to allow on-orbit servicing, that could make LEO a more viable market.