Hickenlooper, Lummis File Orbital Sustainability Act

Senate Commerce Space Subcommittee Chairman John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said Tuesday he and ranking member Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., led filing of the Orbital Sustainability Act in a bid to create a "demonstration program" to partner with industry in developing technology for remediating space debris objects. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., signed on as original co-sponsors. The measure would require the Commerce Department to work with the FCC and National Space Council on developing and promoting standard practices for avoiding collisions and near hits between spacecraft in orbit. It would require the Space Council to update its orbital debris mitigation standards and encourage the FCC to use those updated standards as the basis for its own space-related regulations. Hickenlooper eyed space debris legislation earlier this year following House Commerce Committee leaders' circulation of two draft bills to revamp the FCC's low earth orbit satellite licensing rules (see 2202180044). "Our society is reliant on satellites in orbit, yet space junk is a constant, growing threat,” Hickenlooper said: “Space debris endangers everything from global communications to advanced weather forecasting to human space exploration."