Trump in Spaaaaaaace: Washington DC battles over who gets to decide the rules of trillion-dollar new industry

So what happened to the FCC?

Which leads back to the FCC policy approved today. The original version [PDF] posted several weeks ago is a lengthy and dry document walking through the issues to do with space debris and identifying areas that need review given the plan to allow more companies to send many more satellites into space.

The risks are potentially huge: the report even identifies the fact that liquids used in some propulsion systems may not disperse in the atmosphere and so could pose a risk for anything barreling into space.

Critically however, it identifies the fact that due to such safety concerns the FCC may need to take more of a hands-on role. It notes that while in the past "the choice of orbit regime was generally best left to the operator, in some instances the public interest would be served by a more detailed discussion of how an operator would avoid potential collisions."

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And it notes that "in an effort to implement emerging best practices in an increasingly crowded space environment, we propose modifications to the current rule and additional specific disclosures regarding selection of orbit and deployment, traceability, maneuverability and other related matters."

Or, in other words, set the rules that will define how new space objects are designed, positioned and operate.

Although we have yet to see the revised version of the FCC document that was changed so significantly in the last 24 hours before it was approved, it’s a safe bet that this is the area that Commissioner Rosenworcel was referring to when she warned that "a whole host of changes" had been made that questioned the FCC's authority over such matters.

As Rosenworcel noted, there has been no law passed through Congress and so the FCC remains in charge of all rules pertaining to non-military launches into space. But that is not how vice president Pence, commerce secretary Ross and the new National Space Council see things. Not to mention Trump and his Space Force.

And so we have sudden changes to documents and FCC Commissioners suddenly deciding that they may not be in charge of things that they were confident they were in charge of just a day earlier. Under this administration, money talks and bullshit walks… all the way to the bank and back. ®