We’ve barely finished trashing our planet and now we’re getting started on outer space. Enter the FCC, which has issued its first penalty to a company for failing to clean up space junk, because aliens hate litter too.

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FCC enforces first space debris penalty

Space debris is a problem. Since the dawn of the space age in the 1950s, governments and companies have launched thousands of rockets and satellites into orbit, and the number is rapidly increasing. At the end of their lives, most space objects break apart and float around forever.

Now the Federal Communications Commission is taking action. The US communications regulator reached a settlement with satellite television company Dish Network, its first penalty related to space debris.

Dish launched its EchoStar-7 satellite in 2002 and planned to remove it from service in May 2022. But then the company realized the satellite didn’t have enough fuel to get to its disposal location. Instead, it’s coughing up $150,000 to the FCC.

The FCC called it a “breakthrough settlement”, indicating there could be more to come.

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