Thousands more satellites could soon be launched into space. Can the federal government keep up?
In a bold move two years ago, the White House issued a directive that would make the Commerce Department a traffic cop in space, giving it the authority to establish rules of the road for the rapidly growing number of satellites in orbit in hopes that it will prevent collisions that destroy millions of dollars worth of hardware and leave behind dangerous clouds of debris.
In a speech, Vice President Pence hailed the effort, saying “President Trump knows that a stable and orderly space environment is critical to the strength of our economy and the resilience of our national security systems.”
But since then, the directive, known as Space Policy Directive-3, has gone nowhere, mired in a Washington bureaucratic battle over which agency would be best suited for the mission. The Trump administration argues that the Commerce Department is best placed to foster the growing commercial space industry — including satellite servicing, manufacturing, space tourism and more — while taking advantage of new technology to track items in orbit.
Some members of Congress think, however, that the responsibility should go to the Federal Aviation Administration instead, extending that agency’s jurisdiction from the skies to space.
The impasse has left the Pentagon to not only track space debris and satellites but also warn governments and private companies around the world of potential collision, as it has done for years. It’s a job it doesn’t want — and that the White House doesn’t want it to have.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/23/satellites-collisions-tracking-space/
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Here's a photo of the night sky marred by Musk's Starlink satellites
Soon, Earth may be blanketed by tens of thousands of satellites, and they’ll greatly outnumber the approximately 9,000 stars that are visible to an unaided human eye.
This is not some distant threat. It’s already happening. SpaceX has already put 240 of these small satellites, collectively called Starlink, in the sky. Sixty were launched this week. That will be followed by more launches, possibly every two weeks.
In all, the company has approval from the Federal Communications Commission to launch 12,000 satellites, and Musk is seeking approval to launch 30,000 more.
