Environmental and scientific groups led by Earthjustice petitioned the FCC on July 8 to halt processing of orbital data center applications until the agency conducts a comprehensive environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act. The coalition, which includes Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Environment America, and DarkSky International, argues that placing massive numbers of data center satellites in orbit threatens to damage the ozone layer, degrade night sky quality, and alter stratosphere chemistry. The petition calls for a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement to assess cumulative impacts across all proposals rather than reviewing applications individually.
Orbital data center applicants have requested staggering constellation sizes: SpaceX alone has submitted plans for up to a million orbital data centers, while Orbital, Starcloud, Blue Origin, and Cowboy Space collectively seek approvals for nearly 260,000 others. Earthjustice senior attorney Jan Hasselman said this marks the first coordinated push for comprehensive review of orbital data centers, though the FCC has no defined timeline to act on the petition. Meanwhile, the FCC is preparing to vote later this month on a streamlined satellite licensing process, though the modernization efforts would not cover the new wave of orbital data center proposals.