As our space exploration continues unabated, “space debris” or “space junk” The so-called problem is getting bigger and bigger. This name is given to objects that are in orbit around the Earth without any function and usually consist of parts of satellites or spacecraft. As you can imagine, this waste poses many risks, such as hindering research and damaging satellites or flights.

As concerns about the space debris problem continue, today the US took a historic step on the issue. US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), It was the first time that a company was fined for space debris.

The company called Dish Network has to pay a $150,000 fine for not moving its satellite to a safe point.

F.C.C., EchoStar-7 satellite from the Dish Network company saying it did not go out of orbit and moved it to a safer spot 150 thousand dollars He announced that he had imposed a fine. The company also admitted its mistake in its statement.

The punishment was recorded as the first punishment imposed on space debris. FCC Administrator Loyaan A. Egal announced the punishment in his statement:groundbreaking” and stated that they take a strict stance on space debris regulations.

Dish would move the EchoStar-7 300 km above its operating range (about 35,000 km above the Earth’s surface) in May 2022. However, in February 2023, it was realized that the satellite had run out of fuel to complete the maneuver. So the satellite was 122 km away from where it was supposed to go. dangerous closed somewhere. This violated the FCC’s space debris regulations.

As we said at the beginning, space debris is a very serious problem and its solution is still a subject of debate. Size in orbit according to the European Space Agency (ESA) There are 36,500 pieces larger than 10 cm, 1 million pieces between 1 cm and 10 cm, and 130 million pieces between 1 mm and 1 cm. There is space debris. We’ll wait and see if the FCC’s move will change anything and if there will be different penalties for companies in the future.