The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved new regulations requiring low-Earth orbit satellites to be disposed of within five years of the end of missions, and the former regulations require companies to dispose of satellites within 25 years of the end of the mission.
The regulator thus intends to minimize the negative effects of space debris in orbit.FCC President Jessica Rosenworthel pointed out in the statement that 25 years are too long.
Rosenworthel noted that some 10,000 satellites had been launched since 1957, with more than half of them no longer in use.
However, not everyone in the United States approves the regulatory decision, but the members of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives reported in a letter that the FCC decision, taken unilaterally for the space industry, had asked the FCC to explain its decision in the U.S. Congress so that it would not have to resort to the Congressional Review Act to repeal it.