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\n\t\t\t\tThe FCC approved a demonstration satellite designed to beam sunlight to Earth at night, ruling that the light pollution, telescope interference, and safety risks astronomers raised fall outside its authority to regulate.\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Federal Communications Commission, headquartered in this building in Washington, D.C., approved Reflect Orbital’s Earendil-1 satellite despite objections from the American Astronomical Society and other astronomy organizations.Credit: Ser Amantio di Nicolao, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
On July 9, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved Reflect Orbital\u2019s application<\/a> to launch and operate Earendil-1, a demonstration satellite carrying a 59\u00d759 foot (18\u00d718 meter) mirror designed to beam concentrated sunlight onto targeted spots on the ground at night.\u00a0<\/p>\n The approval clears the California startup to test the technology for up to two years, over the objections<\/a> of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and dozens of other scientific and dark-sky organizations, which petitioned the agency to deny the license.<\/p>\n Sunlight for sale<\/p>\n Reflect Orbital\u2019s pitch is to provide sunlight without limits \u2014 whenever and wherever a user might need it. The company\u2019s long-term ambition is a constellation of up to 50,000 orbiting mirrors that could extend solar panel output past sunset, light disaster zones, or replace streetlights. Earendil-1 is the proof-of-concept. It\u2019s a satellite with a deployable reflector projecting a roughly 3.1-mile-wide (5 kilometers) beam of light that Reflect Orbital says will only ever illuminate its intended target.<\/p>\n But even if that light is only directed to its target, the satellite would be the brightest ever launched according to a European Southern Observatory (ESO) study<\/a>. To an observer outside the reflected beam, the satellite would appear as bright as Venus \u2014 and inside the beam four times brighter than a full moon. AAS argued in a public statement<\/a> that the satellite puts research telescopes at risk, could momentarily blind pilots or drivers, and \u201cas Reflect Orbital stated in its own FCC filings \u2014 [could cause] potential permanent eye damage to anyone looking through a mid-sized telescope.\u201d Scale that up to a future fleet in the tens of thousands and the danger compounds.<\/p>\n In its decision, the FCC\u2019s Space Bureau wrote that approving Reflect Orbital\u2019s application \u201cserves the public interest,\u201d citing the 1934 Communications Act\u2019s stated policy to \u201cencourage the provision of new technologies and services to the public.\u201d The FCC concluded that Reflect Orbital\u2019s satellite counts as exactly that kind of technology \u2014 something the FCC thinks it should actively be supporting.<\/p>\n The agency also found that Reflect Orbital\u2019s radio operations won\u2019t interfere with other licensed spectrum users and that its debris-mitigation and deorbit plans meet existing safety thresholds.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the concerns raised by scientists and dark-sky advocates \u2014 light pollution, interference with research telescopes, eye safety for anyone looking through a large telescope \u2014 the Bureau said those effects are outside its jurisdiction, since its authority extends to radio-frequency spectrum and debris, not to what a satellite does with sunlight once it reaches orbit.<\/p>\n The FCC is not required to conduct an environmental review for satellite launches. A categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in place since 1986 means satellite launches aren\u2019t considered as having a potentially negative impact on the environment.<\/p>\n A gap in the rules<\/p>\n So if these concerns aren\u2019t the job of the FCC, then whose job are they? Well \u2014 nobody\u2019s, really. American commercial space activity is licensed through three agencies in a system built for an older space industry: The FAA covers launch and reentry, the FCC covers spectrum, and NOAA covers Earth-imaging satellites. According to Brian Weeden, who directs commercial space research at the Aerospace Corporation\u2019s Center for Space Policy and Strategy, new categories of missions \u2014 \u201ccommercial space stations, commercial lunar landers, rovers on the Moon, satellite servicing\u201d \u2014 don\u2019t fit easily into those three buckets.\u00a0<\/p>\n Weeden calls the resulting mismatch a \u201cwicked problem,\u201d a public-policy term for a complicated issue with no easy solution. Washington has spent a decade trying to solve it through various mission-authorization proposals that have yet to become law. Effectively, emerging technology is too new for the old rulebook, and nobody in Washington has agreed on who should write the new one.<\/p>\n