For the first time in its history, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to fine the broadcaster company Dish Network for the debris and hazardous waste it left idle in space.
The official agency affiliated with the US government announced that it fined Dish Network, a US satellite television company, $ 150 thousand dollars for “posing a potential threat” by placing one of its satellites in an orbit “well below the altitude required by the license conditions”.
“As satellite operations become more widespread, we must ensure that operators comply with their commitments,” FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal said in a statement. He emphasized that “they have strong enforcement authority to enforce vital space debris rules.”
The penalty imposed by the FCC to increase measures for the disposal of potentially hazardous garbage and waste in space revealed the seriousness of the deteriorating situation regarding waste in orbit.
In the statement made by Dish Network, it was stated that the satellite in question is “an old spacecraft (launched in 2002) that is expressly exempt from the FCC’s rule requiring a minimum destruction orbit.”
The statement also said the FCC had made “no specific finding” that the satellite “poses any concerns regarding the safety of orbital debris.”
WASTE IN THE EARTH’S ORBIT HAS REACHED A DANGEROUS SIZE
The American Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) had previously announced an estimate that there are approximately 500 thousand particles between 1 and 10 centimeters in diameter and more than 100 million particles larger than 1 millimeter in Earth’s orbit.
Earlier this year, it was estimated that there were more than 6 thousand active satellites orbiting the Earth.
In 2007, China used a missile to deliberately destroy the Fengyun-1C weather satellite, which had been in Earth orbit since 1999. The destruction of the satellite, while its orbit was filled with hundreds of shrapnel pieces, was described as “alarming”.
The collision of an American and a Russian satellite in 2009 raised concerns that the International Space Station was at risk and would leave behind as many as 2,000 satellite fragments.
