SpaceX, Environmental Advocates Clash Over Second-Gen Constellation

Opposition by Natural Resources Defense Council and the International Dark-Sky Association (NRDC/IDA) to SpaceX's proposed second-generation constellation comes months after the pleading cycle's close and uses arguments the FCC already rejected or that have been previously addressed, the company told the International Bureau in a filing Wednesday. They ignore that the National Environmental Policy Act doesn't apply to space and "seek to goad the Commission into exceeding" its NEPA authority, SpaceX said. They also ignore SpaceX's efforts to mitigate the reflectivity of its Starlink satellites, it said. NEPA doesn't stop the FCC from authorizing commercial satellite communications, but it does make the agency look at the environmental impacts, NRDC/IDA said earlier this month in the opposition: "So far, it has not." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision that the agency didn't violate NEPA in a SpaceX license modification (see 2208260035) didn't address the merits of the NEPA claims raised, and relying on a categorical exclusion to allow the second-gen constellation "is unlawful," the groups said.