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72 Admin. L. Rev. 751 (2020)
When You Wish upon a "Starlink": Evaluating the FCC's Actions to Mitigate the Risk of Orbital Debris in the Age of Satellite "Mega-Constellations"

handle is hein.journals/admin72 and id is 806 raw text is: WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STARLINK: EVALUATING THE FCC'S ACTIONS TO MITIGATE THE RISK OF ORBITAL DEBRIS IN THE AGE OF SATELLITE MEGA- CONSTELLATIONS CLEMENT HEAREY* IN TRO D U CTIO N .......................................................................................75 1 I. OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT U.S. REGULATORY STRUCTURE FOR COMMERCIAL SPACE ACTIVITY...............................................755 A. Which Agencies are Responsible for What?......................................755 B. The Statutoy Basisfor the FCC's Legal Authority in the Field...........757 C. The FCC's Orbital Debris Mitigation Rules ...................................761 D. Authority of the FCC to Move Beyond Disclosure..............................764 II. THE IMPACT OF SATELLITE MEGA-CONSTELLATIONS ..................766 A. The Dawn of the Mega-Constellations Space Race ...........................766 B. The Crowding of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Increased Risk of Orbital Debris ............................................................................767 C. The Catastrophic Consequences of Collisions....................................769 III. ANALYSIS OF RECENT RULEMAKING BY THE FCC.........................771 IV. RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................774 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 778 INTRODUCTION The phrase space race generally evokes thoughts of the Cold War-era competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, where each * J.D. Candidate, American University Washington College of Law (2022); B.A., Politics, University of California, Santa Cruz (2010). Thank you to the hard-working staff of the Administrative Law Review, particularly Sara Strei, Elysia Morelli, and Matti Vagnoni for their valuable feedback and assistance in refining this piece. I also extend a special thank you to my family and friends for all their support and love, as well as my dear friend Conor McPartland, Ph. D., for introducing me to this fascinating topic. 751

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