The FCC Is Finally Taking Space Junk Seriously
Scientific AmericanAPR 2022
The FCC has taken bold action and is at the forefront of space protection and regulation. While pieces of garbage in space don’t seem as pressing of a threat as climate change and garbage on Earth’s surface, space junk could have serious repercussions in the future, and the FCC has taken strong leadership to regulate this problem before it gets out of hand.
The FCC’s rules regarding the disposal of defunct satellites may have come too late, and it's clear the toothless regulator waited too long to act. Space exploration started nearly seven decades ago, yet it took until 2022 for the government agency to step into this wild, wild west, as companies were able to leave their old and useless satellites floating in space without any repercussions for years.