Usually, the commission takes weeks or months to respond to a filing, but it kicked off a public comment period for SpaceX’s orbital data center plan in just a few days.
The Federal Communications Commission seems eager to let SpaceX experiment with massive data centers in space. On Wednesday, Chairman Brendan Carr tweeted, «The FCC welcomes and now seeks comment on the SpaceX application for Orbital Data Centers.»
SpaceX’s application to launch up to one million satellites has been accepted by the agency, kicking off a public comment period. The announcement is surprising because the company only submitted its proposal on Friday. Usually, the FCC takes weeks or months to respond. In this case, it made a decision in days, even though SpaceX’s proposal appears preliminary and even rushed, according to space experts, some of whom question the constellation’s feasibility.
For perspective, only 14,500 satellites are currently in orbit. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk now wants to dramatically increase that number by about 70 times, raising questions about the environmental toll from the required rocket launches and the potential for space debris.
The FCC may have acted fast because SpaceX’s application urged it to “expeditiously authorize” the one million satellite plan.
