Professor Urges FCC to Avoid Satellite Indemnification

The FCC got widespread pushback to its proposed satellite operator indemnification requirement, and academic small satellite researchers would be especially harmed because public universities often have particular obstacles, like Colorado effectively barring indemnification by state agencies, said Scott Palo, University of Colorado aerospace engineering sciences professor, in a docket 18-313 posting Wednesday. Indemnification "is an unnecessary and unhelpful approach" for small satellite missions, since academic researchers "are already deeply invested in careful stewardship of the orbital environment," he said. Many satcom operators lobbied against an indemnification requirement (see 2101140069).