A coalition of academics and environmental groups has petitioned the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to halt to the processing of orbital data center (ODC) applications.. – Sebastian Moss. With representation from environmental law organization Earthjustice, the group is petitioning the US regulator under the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which mandates federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of their actions..
“If ever a situation warranted a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), it is this one,” the petition said. “A PEIS would allow for a comprehensive analysis of the impacts of … placing virtually countless new ODC into orbit, threatening to degrade the ozone layer, the quality of the night sky, and change the very chemistry of the stratosphere itself.”.
The coalition of groups includes Environment America, itself a coalition of environmental advocacy groups, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and DarkSky International, the latter of which has been outspoken about Starlink’s aspirations since the beginning of 2023, when it filed a lawsuit against Starlink’s Gen2 satellite rollout, which sought regulatory permission for only 7,500 new satellites.. The scale of DarkSky International’s objections regularly makes it into the business reporting of Starlink’s more ambitious declarations.
Following SpaceX’s remarkable application to launch one million satellites, it joined the American Astronomical Society in raising the alarm about the critical threat of light pollution.. The petition hopes to gauge public opinion on the issue and spark wider support for the group’s cause.. “The proponents of these proposals describe their plans in grandiose, civilization-changing terms,” the petition states. “But these same proponents have refused to embrace any inquiry into the impacts of their self-claimed epochal technology on the environment, science, economy, or other values.”.
Earthjustice intends to bring its concerns to court if the FCC continues granting licenses and ignores the petition. On July 22nd, the commission is set to vote to overhaul its satellite application process in order to slash red tape and streamline aggressive rollouts of American constellations..
Talking points from ODC advocates have begun to center environmental messaging, arguing that space-based power frees terrestrial grids of the burdens of data centers, as orbital radiative cooling frees up water supplies for people.. As yet, no orbital data center group has made any commitment to net-zero emissions, low-aluminium satellite design, or any similar gesture besides the cursory rhetoric of space being a hypothetically ecological place to do something..
More in Sustainability. 03 Jun 2026. More in Space.
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