1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge Congress to address a significant gap in federal oversight of novel commercial space activities, particularly satellites designed to reflect sunlight back toward Earth at night. Current agencies regulate only parts of these missions. The FCC regulates communications and spectrum use, the FAA regulates launch and reentry, and NOAA regulates certain remote-sensing systems. However, no agency appears to have clear authority to evaluate and license the primary activity of an orbital reflector: intentionally directing artificial illumination onto the Earth’s surface. This creates a situation where a company may receive the licenses needed to launch and communicate with a spacecraft without any agency comprehensively reviewing its effects on astronomy, aviation safety, wildlife, human health, light pollution, national security, or affected communities. Congress should establish a clear mission-authorization framework for commercial space activities that fall outside existing agency jurisdiction. The Department of Commerce’s Office of Space Commerce appears to be the most logical lead agency, working with the FAA, FCC, EPA, NSF, NASA, NOAA, wildlife agencies, and national-security agencies as appropriate. Any authorization process for orbital illumination systems should include enforceable limits on brightness, duration, geographic targeting, cumulative constellation effects, observatory and aviation exclusion zones, environmental impacts, emergency shutdown capability, and public transparency. Large constellations should be assessed as complete systems rather than approved incrementally, one satellite at a time. This is not an argument against experimentation or commercial space development. It is an argument that a private company should not be able to materially alter the nighttime environment without a regulator clearly responsible for evaluating the consequences. Please support legislation establishing comprehensive federal mission authorization for novel commercial space activities and ensuring that orbital illumination systems cannot be deployed at scale without meaningful public-interest review.