US satellite television network Dish has been slapped with the first-ever fine by US authorities over space debris. Photo: JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Getty Images via AFP/FileUS authorities said they have issued a"breakthrough" first-ever fine over space debris, slapping a $150,000 penalty on a TV company that failed to properly dispose of a satellite.
"This marks a first in space debris enforcement by the Commission, which has stepped up its satellite policy efforts," the FCC, which authorizes space-based telecom services, said in a statement. The commission said Dish, a US satellite television provider, pledged in 2012 to elevate the satellite to 300 kilometers above its operational arc.But with fuel running low, it retired the satellite at an altitude just over 120 kilometers above the original arc."This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules.
In a statement Tuesday, Dish appeared to counter the FCC over disposal requirements, and argued that the commission's enforcement arm made"no specific findings that EchoStar-7 poses any orbital debris safety concerns.""As the Enforcement Bureau recognizes in the settlement, the EchoStar-7 satellite was an older spacecraft that had been explicitly exempted from the FCC's rule requiring a minimum disposal orbit," a Dish spokesperson said in a statement.
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