The Federal Communications Commission has decided to exempt satellites from federal environmental reviews, PCMag reported, despite worries about light pollution and what burning-up spacecraft do to the upper atmosphere. The agency planned to make the change official at its Sept. 30 meeting, where it would vote to reform its environmental rules.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr laid out the case in a blog post on a Tuesday. “For too long, outdated and unnecessary environmental rules have slowed America’s builders down,” he wrote.
The reforms target the agency’s approach to the National Environmental Policy Act, known as NEPA, which requires federal agencies to “assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions.” Carr said the change would “cut billions of dollars in red tape” and open the way for more investment in telecommunications infrastructure on the ground and in orbit. He wrote that the decision would also make clear that “bureaucratic NEPA reviews have no place across a range of innovative space-based activities regulated by the FCC.”
The exact text was due out the following Wednesday. A senior official told reporters in a press briefing that the plan would lift the on-the-ground NEPA rules from satellite systems and other constellations in orbit.
A long-standing gap, and a warning
The FCC has historically stayed out of environmental reviews for satellite systems. In 2022, the US Government Accountability Office urged it to rethink that, noting that tens of thousands of satellites, SpaceX’s among them, could be in orbit by 2030. The GAO report said stakeholders had raised concerns about “changes in the temperature of the upper atmosphere from emissions from launches or deorbiting of satellites,” along with effects on astronomical research and changes to the night sky.
Since then the numbers have grown. SpaceX wants to launch another 100,000 satellites for Starlink and up to 1 million for Starmind, its orbital data center system. In 2024, a group of astronomers and space experts asked the FCC to halt future Starlink launches so the country could study the environmental effects, including whether retired satellites can harm the ozone layer when they burn up.
A year before the Carr announcement, the FCC had already signaled it would keep satellites out of NEPA reviews. It described them as “‘extraterritorial activities’ with effects located entirely outside of the jurisdiction of the United States.”
The mirror in the sky
In July, the commission approved US startup Reflect Orbital’s plan for a satellite carrying a giant space mirror that bounces sunlight back to Earth at night. Astronomers and environmental groups objected. The FCC found those concerns “beyond the Commission’s authority,” saying it licenses radio stations that use radiofrequency spectrum and has no authority over “the licensing and operation of a solar reflector.” It stressed that it was clearing only one satellite from Reflect Orbital.
Environmental groups are expected to fight the reforms. Carr’s FCC has made US dominance in space and the satellite industry a major goal, and it cites the threat of China. “It is time to build,” Carr said.
What is falling out of the sky
The disposal numbers give the debate some weight. In a semi-annual report to the FCC, SpaceX said it disposed of 260 Starlink satellites between December 2025 and May 2026 by letting them re-enter the atmosphere and vaporize. Of those, 176 were first-generation units. Another 349 satellites were decommissioned in the same six months and are due to be disposed of in the coming months, Tom’s Hardware reported.
SpaceX has said bringing the dead satellites back is technically impractical and financially unviable. First-generation units weigh roughly 573 to 650 pounds, and second-generation units 1,764 to 2,756 pounds. Researchers have called for more study of the atmospheric effects.
SpaceX has also told the FCC it plans to start small with its orbital data center project “to monitor actual atmospheric effects.”
Sources
- SpaceX vaporizes 260 Starlink satellites in six months using Earth's atmosphere — new environmental concerns emerge over burning 2,700-pound orbital data centers, FCC seeks to exempt satellites from regulations
- FCC: Satellite Constellations Don't Need Environmental Reviews
- FCC: Satellite Constellations Don't Need Environmental Reviews
