https://interestingengineering.com/culture/150000-space-debris-fine-dish-network
As more companies look to offer space-based services, space junk is likely to pile up. Fines will ensure that the industry works to clear the mess it is making too.
US imposes $150,000 fine on Dish Network for space debris::undefined
I don't really get why they got fined when they did the best they could. The satellite was launched 20 years before the law was in effect. It's not like they knew that in 20 years they would need x amount of fuel (though to be fair, it probably would have been about 150k in extra cost back then)
It's not like they knew that in 20 years they would need x amount of fuel
Do you think they're the only ones who launched satellites 20 years ago? They absolutely knew how much fuel they needed and how to properly deorbit without leaving hunks of metal orbiting the earth forever, as evidenced by literally every single other 20+ year old government and satellite operator that is not being fined right now.
Hard agree. If my dumbass can do the math for this in Kerbal Space Program on the back of an envelope, these fucks sure as hell can with entire aerospace engineering teams.
Agreed about them doing nothing against the law in the past.
But against your last anecdote: 150k now is worth more than having to maybe pay 150k later
Yeah! They definitely will learn when they have to pay less than a percent of their total revenue in 2022!
/s
Oh no, how will Dish Network ever financially recover from such a consequential fine!?
What a fucking joke.
How about corporate fines start at a year of just the CEO's compensation. How about that? That would be orders of magnitude higher than this.
Okay but at least they have their dishes out there for 20+ years. While musk has his starlink for 4 years before self destructing in the atmosphere. Why not fine him for wasting resources and have his dishes last 15-20years
End-of-life satellites must either be deorbited or moved to a graveyard orbit. The issue isn't about wasted resources - it's having inert, untrackable debris in an orbit that could be used by others, rendering it useless and dangerous. It's not an issue for Starlink because they encounter a much greater atmospheric drag compared to most telecommunication satellites, so that issue is fixed with time.
Adding onto what the other commenter said, LEO satellites (the orbit Starlink uses) just don't have the same operational lifespan as geostationary satellite (the orbit of this Dish Network satellite). They experience a ton more drag because they sit under 1k km, while geostationary are up at 36k km and as such LEO satellites require way more fuel to stay in orbit.
This is not to say 4 years is not on the lower end of LEO satellites which are usually expected to last 7 years, but geostationary satellites are over double the expected life span at 15-20 years. Finally, even though Starlink is more wasteful, their satellites will fall out of orbit pretty damn fast (within a couple years) compared to geostationary satellites (30+ years).
Source: Google and KSP
For sure, worst case some peons lost their bonus or something. Nothing the execs care about.
$150k is literally less than an error bar on a line item at a satellite launch company.
Hell they probably operate in Texas or some other state which hates women, in which case $150k is just a female employee getting pregnant and you kicking her out on the curb for a year like Jesus said a good conservative should.
stock tumbles down like a burning fireball of shit
...I'm kinda wondering where bottom is on this. /biz/ on 4chan have been mentioning it as a potential meme stock to join GameStop and Bed Bath and Beyond.